ACTA

Tunable Vortex Dynamics in Proximity Junction Arrays: A Possible Accurate and Sensitive 2D THz Detector

J. Rezvani^{a, b}, D. Di Gioacchino^a, C. Gatti^a, N. Poccia^c, C. Ligi^a, S. Tocci^a, M. Cestelli Guidi^a, S. Cibella^d, S. Lupi^e, A. Marcelli^a
^aIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Via Enrico Fermi, 00044 Frascati, Italy
^bConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), CNR-IOM, 34149 Basovizza, Italy
^cInstitute for Metallic Materials, IFW-Dresden, Dresden, 01069, Germany
^dConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, Rome, 00156, Italy
^eDepartment of Physics, Università degli Studi di Sapienza, 00185 Rome, Italy

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An array of superconducting proximity islands has been shown to be highly tunable by electric and magnetic fields. Indeed, a small change in the electric and magnetic field can tune the system from a vortex Mott insulator to a vortex metal. This transition from localized to a non-localized state can occur as soon as the density of the superconducting vortices matches the density of the pinning sites in a non defective structure. The possibility of further modulation of non-localized superconducting states via enhancement of the superconducting order parameter or modulation of the Josephson plasma frequency is discussed. Based on the non-bolometric effects associated with the occurrence of non-equilibrium phenomena in this original superconducting networks we discuss also the possible applications of this array for a conceptually new type of radiation detector.

DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.137.17
topics: niobium islands, proximity junction arrays, terahertz, vortex dynamics, detector