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Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy ferromagnetic/superconducting (FM/SC) bilayers with a labyrinth domain structure are used to study nucleation of superconductivity on a fractal network, tunable through magnetic history. As clusters of reversed domains appear in the FM layer, the SC film shows a percolative behavior that depends on two independent processes: the arrangement of initial reversed domains and the fractal geometry of expanding clusters. For a full labyrinth structure, the behavior of the upper critical field is typical of confined superconductivity on a fractal network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strips containing arrays of submicrometric triangular antidots with a 2D square periodicity have been fabricated by electron beam lithography. A clear ratchet effect of 180° domain wall motion under a varying applied field parallel to the walls has been observed. The direction is determined by the direction of the triangle vertices. In contrast, no ratchet effect is observed when the antidot array is constituted by symmetric rhomb-shaped antidots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]