Semifluxon Molecule under Control

What is it about?

Semifluxons are vortices of supercurrent carrying only HALF of magnetic flux quantum. Here we demonstrate experimentally (a) how to read out the state (up or down) of each semifluxon using on-chip SQUID, (b) how to create a "molecule" of two coupled semifluxons of opposite polarity, and (c) how to switch this molecule from up-down state to down-up state.

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Why is it important?

This is the 1st experimental demonstration of controllable manipulaton of semifluxon molecule, which can be done rather easily -- just be applying a uniform bias current of positive or negative polarity.

Perspectives