We report magnetotransport measurements of the critical field behavior of thin Al films deposited onto multiply connected substrates. The substrates were fabricated via a standard electrochemical process that produced a… Click to show full abstract
We report magnetotransport measurements of the critical field behavior of thin Al films deposited onto multiply connected substrates. The substrates were fabricated via a standard electrochemical process that produced a triangular array of 66-nm-diameter holes having a lattice constant of 100 nm. The critical field transition of the Al films was measured near ${T}_{c}$ as a function of field orientation relative to the substrate normal. With the field oriented along the normal ($\ensuremath{\theta}=0$), we observe reentrant superconductivity at a characteristic matching field ${H}_{m}=0.22$ T, corresponding to one flux quantum per hole. In tilted fields, the position ${H}^{*}$ of the reentrance feature increases as $sec(\ensuremath{\theta})$, but the resistivity traces are somewhat more complex than those of a continuous superconducting film. We show that when the tilt angle is tuned such that ${H}^{*}$ is of the order of the upper critical field ${H}_{c}$, the entire critical region is dominated by the enhanced dissipation associated with a submatching perpendicular component of the applied field. At higher tilt angles a local maximum in the critical field is observed when the perpendicular component of the field is equal to the matching field.
               
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