Strong critical current density enhancement in NiCu/NbN superconducting nanostripes for optical detection

We present measurements of ferromagnet/superconductor (NiCu/NbN) and plain superconducting (NbN) nanostripes with the linewidth ranging from 150 to 300 nm. The NiCu (3 nm)/NbN (8 nm) bilayers, as compared to NbN (8 nm), showed a up to six times increase in their critical current density, reaching at 4.2 K the values of 5.5 MA/cm(2) for a 150 nm wide nanostripe meander and 12.1 MA/cm(2) for a 300 nm one. We also observed six-time sensitivity enhancement when. the 150 nm wide NiCu/NbN nanostripe was used as an optical detector. The strong critical current enhancement is explained by the vortex pinning strength and density increase in NiCu/NbN bilayers and confirmed by approximately tenfold increase in the vortex polarizability factor. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3479529]