QUANTIZATION AND CONFINEMENT EFFECTS IN SUPERCONDUCTING FILMS WITH ANANTIDOT LATTICE

We have studied flux line confinement by regular arrays of submicron h oles (triangular and square antidot lattices) in superconducting films . Critical current density j(c) and pinning force f(p) are very strong ly enhanced due to pinning of single or multi-quanta vortices by the a ntidots. Direct measurements of j(c) and f(p) for several well-defined antidot diameters D, proves that pinning centers with size considerab ly larger than the temperature-dependent coherence length xi(T) are mu ch more efficient than those with D congruent to xi(T).