Enhanced vortex damping by eddy currents in superconductor-semiconductor hybrids

An enhancement of vortex-motion damping in thin Pb/In superconducting films is obtained through coupling to an adjacent two-dimensional electron gas formed in a modulation-doped GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure. This effect is observed by monitoring the power dissipation in the superconductor in the vortex state while increasing the density of the electron gas using a gate voltage. Quantitative agreement is found with calculations based on a viscous damping model which considers generation of eddy currents in the electron gas by moving flux lines. In the regime of filamentary vortex flow, eddy-current damping leads to a striking dissipation breakdown due to the stopping of entire vortex channels.