Individual and multiple vortex pinning in systems with periodic pinning arrays - art. no. 052503

We examine multiple and individual vortex pinning in thin superconductors w ith periodic pinning arrays. With simulations for multivortex pinning we ob serve peaks in the critical current of equal magnitude at every matching fi eld, while for individual vortex pinning we observe a sharp drop in the cri tical current after the first matching field in agreement with experiments. We examine the scaling of the critical current at commensurate and incomme nsurate fields with simulations for varied pinning strength and show that t he depinning force at the incommensurate fields decreases faster than at th e commensurate fields.