Dynamic regimes in films with a periodic array of antidots

Abstract

We have studied the dynamic response of Pb thin films with a square array of antidots by means of ac susceptibility chi(T,H) measurements. At low enough ac drive amplitudes h, vortices moving inside the pinning potential give rise to a frequency- and h-independent response together with a scarce dissipation. For higher amplitudes, the average distance travelled by vortices surpasses the pinning range and a critical state develops. We found that the boundary h*(H,T) between these regimes smoothly decreases as T increases whereas a step-like behavior is observed as a function of field. We demonstrate that these steps in h*(H) arise from sharp changes in the pinning strength corresponding to different vortex configurations. For a wide set of data at several fields and temperatures in the critical state regime, we show that the scaling laws based on the simple Bean model are satisfied.