For emerging energy saving technologies superconducting materials with superior performance are needed. Such materials can be developed by manipulating the "elementary building blocks" through nanostructuring. For superconductivity the "elementary blocks" are Cooper pair and fluxon (vortex). This book presents new ways how to modify superconductivity and vortex matter through nanostructuring and the use of nanoscale magnetic templates. The basic nano-effects, vortex and vortex-antivortex patterns, vortex dynamics, Josephson phenomena, critical currents, and interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism at the nanoscale are discussed. Potential applications of nanostructured superconductors are also presented in the book.

Contenu
Guided Vortex Motion and Vortex Ratchets in Nanostructured Superconductors.- High-Tc Films: From Natural Defects to Nanostructure Engineering of Vortex Matter.- Ion Irradiation of High-Temperature Superconductors and Its Application for Nanopatterning.- Frontiers Problems of the Josephson Effect: From Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena Decay to High-Tc Superconductivity.- Intrinsic Josephson Tunneling in High-Temperature Superconductors.- Stacked Josephson Junctions.- Point-Contact Spectroscopy of Multigap Superconductors.- Nanoscale Structures and Pseudogap in Under-doped High-Tc Superconductors.- Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of High Tc Cuprates.- Scanning Tunnelling Spectroscopy of Vortices with Normal and Superconducting tips.- Surface Superconductivity Controlled by Electric Field.- Polarity-Dependent Vortex Pinning and Spontaneous VortexAntivortex Structures in Superconductor/Ferromagnet Hybrids.- Superconductor/Ferromagnet Hybrids: Bilayers and Spin Switching.- Interplay Between Ferromagnetism and Superconductivity.