Interplay of bulk and edge-assisted pinning in superconducting stripes

The complex dynamics of superconducting vortices in the strong pinning regime is still a major challenge in the field. This dynamics depends qualitatively not only on the shape of individual inclusions and their concentration but also on the spatial arrangement of these inclusions. Utilizing the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model and state-of-art large-scale GP GPU simulations, we present a systematic study of the combined effect of a pinning potential generated by the edge of the superconductor and non-superconducting inclusions embedded in the superconducting matrix. In particular, we found that pinning centers in the vicinity of the superconductor’s boundary reduce the effective pinning potential of the boundary and quantified the effect. Our results give important insights into the pinning mechanisms near superconducting boundaries, which can be used, in particular, for increasing the quality factor of superconducting radio frequency cavities.