Issues $\rightarrow$ Volume 27, Issue 4 (2026)

Critical Current in Superconductors with Strong Pinning of Abrikosov’s Vortices

KASATKIN O.L.$^{1,2}$, FLIS V.S.$^{1}$, KALENYUK O.A.$^{1}$, MOSHCHIL V.Ye.$^{2}$, TSVITKOVSKYI V.P.$^{1}$, SHAPOVALOV A.P.$^{1,3}$, PRIKHNA T.O.$^{2}$, and KORDYUK O.A.$^{1,3}$

$^1$G.V. Kurdyumov Institute for Metal Physics of the N.A.S. of Ukraine, 36 Academician Vernadsky Blvd., UA-03142 Kyiv, Ukraine
$^2$V.M. Bakul Institute for Superhard Materials of the N.A.S. of Ukraine, 2 Avtozavodska Str., UA-04074 Kyiv, Ukraine
$^3$Kyiv Academic University, 36 Academician Vernadsky Blvd., UA-03142 Kyiv, Ukraine

Received / final version: 26.06.2026 / 08.10.2026 Download PDF logo PDF

Abstract
One of the most important challenges in applied superconductivity is increasing the current-carrying capacity and, accordingly, the critical current of superconducting materials used in modern electrical engineering and electronics. To solve this problem, it is necessary to create conditions for the effective pinning of Abrikosov’s vortices and impede their movement under the influence of the Lorentz force generated by the transport current. Numerous research groups try to solve it in an optimal way by choosing the relevant artificial defect nanostructure implanted inside the superconductor material in order to prevent magnetic-fluxons’ motion and the corresponding resistive state of the superconductor caused by this motion. In the present work, we review mechanisms of effective vortexes’ pinning in moderately anisotropic 3D superconductors produced by nanosize structural defects of different dimensionality, as well as the so-called ‘magnetic’ mechanism of pinning in the hybrid superconductor/ferromagnet (S/F) structures, and estimate their effect on the critical-current value and its dependences on the external parameters, such as temperature and applied DC magnetic-field value and orientation with respect to crystalline axes. We also present some experimental results on critical-current measurements in high-Tc superconducting materials: pulse-laser deposited thin Y–Ba–Cu–O films, as well as bulk MgB2 samples and films of them with different defect nanostructures.

Keywords: superconductor, Abrikosov’s vortex, pinning, critical current, columnar defect, twin boundary, bicrystal.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/ufm.27.04.***

Citation: O.L. Kasatkin, V.S. Flis, O.A. Kalenyuk, V.Ye. Moshchil, V.P. Tsvitkovskyi, A.P. Shapovalov, T.O. Prikhna, and O.A. Kordyuk, Critical Current in Superconductors with Strong Pinning of Abrikosov’s Vortices, Progress in Physics of Metals, 27, No. 4: ***–*** (2026)

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