Flux flushing in superconducting niobium films

Flux trapping in superconducting devices has shown to be detrimental to the consistent operation of superconducting electronics (SCE). Approaches to improve reliability of SCE components have focused on introduction of flux trap regions and highly elaborate degaussing procedures. Nevertheless, a controlled and reproducible method to assure the elimination of trapped flux on SCE devices remains elusive. A substantial body of work on artificial defects utilizing the so called ratchet effect has demonstrate limited control of the magnetic vortices in niobium films. These early attempts to control the spurious vortices distribution have been limited to small geometrical regions having no practical effect on improving SCE devices operational parameters. In this paper, we report simulations and propose an improved method utilizing the ratchet effect that can be extended to physical sizes compatible to existing fabrication techniques of SCE devices.