Diode Effect in a Superconducting Hybrid Cu/MoN Strip with a Lateral Cut

Transport characteristics of superconducting hybrid Cu/MoN strips with a single cut near one of the strip edges are investigated experimentally. Such strips exhibit a strong diode (nonreciprocal) effect—in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, the critical current can differ by almost five times depending on the current direction. The observed effect is associated with the condensation of current lines near the cut, which leads to different conditions of entrance of vortices from the strip edge with the cut and from the opposite edge without a cut. The difference in the critical currents leads to different voltages in the resistive state for different directions of currents of the same magnitude. Due to the possibility of attaining high velocities of vortices (several km/s) and nonhysteretic current–voltage characteristics in a wide temperature range, such hybrid systems can be used for constructing a superconducting diode operating at frequencies up to 1 GHz.