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Imaging local magnetic fields produced by nano- and micrometer-scale superconductors has become a vital tool that can not only reveal crucial information on the vortex dynamics and order parameters of the superconducting materials but also visualize the working mechanism of superconducting devices made for quantum information. Here, we performed measurements of the magnetic field distributions of mesoscopic superconducting structures with various geometries by combining a thin ferromagnetic metal layer as a magneto-optical sensing element that responds to the environmental magnetic fields and a custom-made sensitive Sagnac interferometer. The sensitivity of the technique enables the observation of magnetic flux jumps due to individual vortex entries into nanostructured superconductors. In addition, with the control of incident power at a focused laser spot, we induce thermally driven movement of vortices that leaves a trace of a microscopic optical heating pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the spell of BCS-electron–phonon theory [M. Tinkham, Introduction to Superconductivity, 2nd ed. (McGraw Hill, New York, 1996)], during the last 6 years experimentalists have purportedly discovered a plethora of high temperature conventional superconductors among pressurized hydrides [Pickard et al., Ann. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 11, 57 (2020) and R. F. Service, Science 373, 954 (2021)], and theorists have been busy predicting and explaining those findings [Lv et al., Matter Radiat. Extremes 5, 068101 (2020); Flores-Livas et al., Phys. Rep. 856, 1 (2020); and Boeri et al., J. Phys. Condens. Matter. (to be published)]. The alternative theory of hole superconductivity (see https://jorge.physics.ucsd.edu/hole.html for a list of references) predicts instead that no superconductivity can exist in these materials. In this Tutorial, I will first argue that, unclouded by the prejudice of BCS's validity, the existing experimental evidence for superconductivity in pressurized hydrides does not withstand scrutiny. Once it is established that superconductivity in pressurized hydrides is a myth and not a reality, the claim to validity of BCS-electron–phonon theory as a descriptor of superconductivity of real materials will be forever shattered, and an alternative theory will become imperative. I will explain the fundamentals of the theory of hole superconductivity, developed over the past 32 years [see https://jorge.physics.ucsd.edu/hole.html and J. E. Hirsch, Phys. Lett. A 134, 451 (1989)], and why it is compelling. Crucially, it explains the Meissner effect, that I argue the conventional theory does not. It applies to all superconducting materials and provides guidelines in the search for high temperature superconductors that are very different from those provided by BCS-electron–phonon theory. Light elements are predicted to be irrelevant to warm superconductivity because according to this theory the electron–phonon interaction plays no role in superconductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the field of flexible electronics has become one of the cross-disciplinary research hotspots, attracting worldwide attention and making rapid advances. So far, there has been plenty of research on the use of two-dimensional (2D) materials in flexible electronics, including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenide, and so on. In this work, we successfully prepared quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) Nb2Pd0.73S5.97 superconductors on flexible paper by mechanical friction and systematically studied their physical properties at low temperatures. Superconductivity with transition temperature (Tc) ∼ 6.05 K by Meissner effect was observed in Nb2Pd0.73S5.97 wires coated on flexible paper, and a resistance drop at 4.80 K was confirmed in electrical transport measurements. The lower critical field (Hc1) of coated paper shows anisotropy effect under parallel and perpendicular magnetic fields, exhibiting a 2D-like feature, unlike the bulk Nb2Pd0.73S5.97 fibers. Our work provides a broader platform for the application of low-dimensional materials in flexible functional devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that a ferromagnetic (F) slab with the in-plane magnetization sandwiched between two superconducting (S) films experiences strong demagnetization effect due to the Meissner screening of the stray magnetic field by superconductors. In the extreme case, the transition of the S film from normal to the superconducting state can switch the demagnetization factor from 0 to 1, which is in a sharp contrast with the S/F bilayers where such transition affects the magnetic field inside the F film only slightly. The giant demagnetization effect is shown to be qualitatively robust against the decreasing superconducting film thickness and may provide a hint toward the explanation of the anomalously large ferromagnetic resonance frequency shift recently observed for the S/F/S structures [Golovchanskiy et al., Phys. Rev. Appl. 14, 024086 (2020)]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]