We have developed a new torque magnetometer on the basis of a 4-K refrigerator. The system temperature can be lowered down to 1.5 K by pumping liquefied helium from a top loading sample space. A piezoresistor bridge on a Si cantilever is used to detect torque acting on a sample. A transverse magnetic field is supplied by a variable-field permanent magnet up to 10 kG. We find that a sensitivity of our torque magnetometer is Δ τ 10-10 Nm.

It is of considerable interest to study the vortex behavior of a multiply connected superconductor for potential applications of vortex devices. Our sample is made of a type-I superconductor Pb and a capillary plate. The nominal sizes are 1-µm in hole diameter and 1.8-µm in lattice pitch. The microholes form triangular lattice while a superconducting network consists of a honeycomb lattice. When each hole accommodates a single vortex 0, an applied magnetic field becomes a nominal matching field (7.83 G). We measure the magnetization curve of sample by means of a SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) magnetometer in the accurate small fields on the order of Gauss. We find a sharp magnetization peak at 8.2 G at temperatures near the critical temperature Tc.