Evidence of rf-driven branching of dendritic vortex avalanches in MgB2 microwave resonators

The influence of dendritic magnetic-flux penetration on the microwave response of superconducting MgB2 films is investigated by a coplanar resonator technique. The peculiar feature consists of jumps in the resonance curve, induced by vortex avalanches freezing flux inside the resonator. Due to a shaking effect, microwave currents maintain the vortex system close to a nonequilibrium state, resulting in dendrite branching. Avalanche-size distributions before and after flux-pinning tailoring by heavy-ion irradiation are fully consistent with molecular dynamics simulations reported in literature.