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Ratchet without spatial asymmetry for controlling the motion of magnetic flux quanta using time-asymmetric drives

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 305–311 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Initially inspired by biological motors, new types of nanodevice have been proposed for controlling the motion of nanoparticles. Structures incorporating spatially asymmetric potential profiles (ratchet substrates) have been realized experimentally to manipulate vortices in superconductors, particles in asymmetric silicon pores, as well as charged particles through artificial pores and arrays of optical tweezers. Using theoretical ideas, we demonstrate experimentally how to guide flux quanta in layered superconductors using a drive that is asymmetric in time instead of being asymmetric in space. By varying the time-asymmetry of the drive, we are able experimentally to increase or decrease the density of magnetic flux at the centre of superconducting samples that have no spatial ratchet substrate. This is the first ratchet without a ratchet potential. The experimental results can be well described by numerical simulations considering the dragging effect of two types of vortices penetrating layered superconductors in tilted magnetic fields.

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Figure 1: Introduction to the operation of the ratchet device.
Figure 2: Experimental scanning Hall probe images of dragging/brushing of PVs by JV stacks.
Figure 3: Results of d.c. lensing.
Figure 4: Time dependence of the a.c.-driven ratchet device.
Figure 5: Investigations of lensing efficiency.
Figure 6: The simulated asymmetrically a.c.-driven vortex lens.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge support from the EPSRC (UK) under grant No. GR/R46489/01, the ESF VORTEX network, the US NSA and ARDA under AFOSR contract No. F49620-02-1-0334, NSF grant No. EIA-0130383, and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from MEXT, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    David Cole & Simon Bending

  2. Frontier Research System, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako-shi, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    Sergey Savel'ev & Franco Nori

  3. Department of Physics, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK

    Sergey Savel'ev

  4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Alexander Grigorenko

  5. Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Tamegai

  6. Department of Physics, Center for Theoretical Physics, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48109-1040, USA

    Franco Nori

Authors
  1. David Cole
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Correspondence to Simon Bending.

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Cole, D., Bending, S., Savel'ev, S. et al. Ratchet without spatial asymmetry for controlling the motion of magnetic flux quanta using time-asymmetric drives. Nature Mater 5, 305–311 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1608

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