We report on direct imaging of vortex matter nucleated in micron-sized Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y superconducting samples that incidentally present a bridge structure. We find that when nucleating vortices in a field-cooling condition the deck of the bridge acts as a converging lens for vortices. By means of Bitter decoration images allowing us to quantify the enhancement of vortex-vortex interaction energy per unit length in the deck of the bridge, we are able to estimate that the deck is thinner than 0.6\,μm. We show that the structural properties of vortex matter nucleated in micron-sized thin samples are not significantly affected by sample-thickness variations of the order of half a micron, an important information for type-II superconductors-based mesoscopic technological devices.
@article{arxiv.2109.08700,
title = {Bridge in micron-sized Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+y sample act as converging lens for vortices},
author = {Joaquín Puig and Néstor René Cejas Bolecek and Jazmín Aragón Sánchez and Moira Inés Dolz and Marcin Konczykowski and Yanina Fasano},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.08700},
year = {2021}
}