Observation of individual vortex penetration in a coplanar superconducting resonator

  1. Kirill Shulga,
  2. Shunsuke Nishimura,
  3. Pavel A. Volkov,
  4. Ryota Hasegawa,
  5. Miu Hirano,
  6. Takeyuki Tsuji,
  7. Takayuki Iwasaki,
  8. Mutsuko Hatano,
  9. Kento Sasaki,
  10. and Kensuke Kobayashi
We demonstrate the detection and control of individual Abrikosov vortices in superconducting microwave resonators. λ/4 resonators with a narrowed region near the grounded end acting
as a vortex trap were fabricated and studied using microwave transmission spectroscopy at millikelvin temperatures. Sharp stepwise drops in resonance frequency are detected as a function of increasing external magnetic field, attributed to the entry of individual Abrikosov vortices in the narrow region. This interpretation is confirmed by NV center magnetometry revealing discrete vortex entry events on increasing field. Our results establish a method to investigate and manipulate the states of Abrikosov vortices with microwaves.