Predicted field-dependent increase of critical currents in asymmetric superconducting nanocircuits

The critical current of a thin superconducting strip of width W much larger than the Ginzburg-Landau coherence length ξ but much smaller than the Pearl length Λ=2λ2/d is maximized when the strip is straight with defect-free edges. When a perpendicular magnetic field is applied to a long straight strip, the critical current initially decreases linearly with H but then decreases more slowly with H when vortices or antivortices are forced into the strip. However, in a superconducting strip containing sharp 90 or 180 turns, the zero-field critical current at H=0 is reduced because vortices or antivortices are preferentially nucleated at the inner corners of the turns, where current crowding occurs. Using both analytic London-model calculations and time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau simulations, we predict that in such asymmetric strips the resulting critical current can be increased by applying a perpendicular magnetic field that induces a current-density contribution opposing the applied current density at the inner corners. This effect should apply to all turns that bend in the same direction.