Dichotomic fluxoid quantization effects in a superconducting double network

Abstract

Energy oscillations and vortex occupation as a function of the external magnetic field are calculated for the recently realized superconducting double network consisting of two interlaced sub-networks of small and large loops. The calculations, based on fluxoid quantization and energy minimization, show that at the low or high field range in each energy period only the population of the large loops increases, whereas all small loops remain equally populated with fluxoids. The small loops gain an extra fluxoid over a small field range around the center of each period, resembling the behavior of a single loop. This range increases as the ratio between the areas of the large and small loops decreases.