Pinning of superconducting vortices in MoGe/Au Thin nano-squares

In this work, we report a scanning tunneling spectroscopy study of vortex patterns in mesoscopic superconducting squares and explore the impact of defects and corrugations inherently present in nanofabricated structures. We find that a hillock at the edge can function as an attractive or repulsive pinning center for vortices deforming the, theoretically predicted, symmetry-induced vortex configurations. In addition, we exploit the inherently present imperfections, creating metastable states, to visualize the dynamics of vortex penetration during magnetic field sweeps.