Within the Ginzburg-Landau formalism, we predict two novel mechanisms of vortex-antivortex nucleation in a magnetically nanostructured superconductor. Although counterintuitive, nucleation of vortex-antivortex pairs can be activated in a superconducting (SC) film covered by arrays of submicron ferromagnets (FMs) when exposed to an external homogeneous magnetic field. In another scenario, we predict the thermal induction of vortex-antivortex configurations in SC-FM samples. This phenomenon leads to a new type of Little-Parks oscillations of the FM magnetization-temperature phase boundary of the SC film.

• Received 13 April 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.227001