PRECISION MAGNETOMETRY ON A SUBMICRON SCALE - MAGNETIZATION OF SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM DOTS

We report on magnetisation of individual superconducting particles wit h size down to 0.1 micron. The non-invasive access to properties of su ch small objects has become possible using submicron Hall probes which detect a local magnetic held and work effectively as micro-fluxmeters similar to, e.g., SQUIDs but with an effective detection loop of only about a square micron. We have found that the spatial confinement of superconductivity in a small volume gives rise to dramatic changes in thermodynamic properties of mesoscopic superconductors. (C) 1998 Acade mic Press Limited.