Bismuth Hall effect sensors with active sizes in the range 0.1µm - 2µm have been fabricated by electron beam lithography and lift-off techniques for applications in scanning Hall probe microscopy (SHPM). The key figures of merit of the sensors have been systematically characterised as a function of device size. The miniumum detectable field of 100nm probes at room temperature is found to be Bmin=0.9mT/Hz0.5, with scope for more than a factor of ten reduction by using higher Hall probe currents. This is significantly lower than in similar samples fabricated by focussed ion beam (FIB) milling of continuous Bi films, suggesting that the elimination of FIB damage and Ga+ ion incorporation through the use of lift-off techniques leads to superior figures of merit. A number of ways in which the T=300K performance of our sensors could be improved still futher are discussed. High resolution scanning Hall probe microscopy (SHPM) with semiconductor 2DEG Hall probe devices has been used to search for novel phases of vortex matter in single crystals of the high temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+. In the crossing lattices regime of these highly anisotropic superconductors under tilted magnetic fields two orthogonal types of flux structure are formed known as Josephson and pancake vortices (JVs and PVs). SHPM has been used to study interacting JV-PV matter with very high in-plane fields. The spacing of JV chains has been systematically quantified as a function of both in-plane and out-of-plane fields. Surprisingly, it is found that the JV chain spacing is not solely a function of the in-plane field, as previously assumed, and the effective anisotropy, γ_eff, is shown to depend strongly on the out-of-plane field strength. Moreover, for a fixed in-plane field the JV stack spacing shows pronounced sawtooth-like oscillations as a function of the out-of-plane field. These measurements are giving us unique new insights into the properties of crossing vortex lattices in highly anisotropic cuprate superconductors at high Josephson vortex stack densities.

Le sujet de ce travail a été une étude détaillée du supraconducteur CuxTiSe2. Des échantillons avec différentes teneurs en cuivre x, ont été étudiés par magnétométrie locale à sonde de Hall. Nous avons tout d'abord construit les profils de champ magnétique dans les échantillons pour déterminer quand les premiers vortex pénètrent dans l'échantillon. La forme en dôme des profils a indiqué que le piègeage est très faible et que la pénétration des vortex est principalement régie par des barrières géométriques, ce qui nous a permis de déterminer le champ critique inférieur, Hc1. Un bon accord entre la théorie et Hc1 (T) a été obtenu en utilisant un modèle à deux gaps, même si l'origine du plus petit de ces gaps ne peut être liée à la structure électronique de CuxTiSe2 . En combinant ces mesures avec des mesures de chaleur spécifique effectuées précédemment sur ces échantillons, nous avons obtenu un comportement non trivial de l'énergie de condensation. En outre, les mesures effectuées pour diverses orientations du champ magnétique ont révélé la présence d'un effet de "lock-in" dans CuxTiSe2, montrant que les vortex restent piégés le long d'une structure en couches même pour les champs magnétiques inclinés. L'orientation des vortices a été déterminée expérimentalement et a pu être bien décrite par un modèle tenant compte de la présence d'une "sur-structure" dans laquelle la supraconductivité est - au moins - partiellement détruite. Cet effet de lock-n a été analysé sur trois échantillons et nous avons montré que la force de piégeage est indépendante du dopage du cuivre. La nature de cette sur-structure est encore inconnue mais pourrait être liée à l'observation récente de parois de domaine des ondes de densité de charge, qui pourraient induire de fortes variations du paramètre d'ordre supraconducteur. / The subject of this work was a detailed study of superconducting CuxTiSe2. Samples with various copper content x, from underdoped to overdoped regions of the phase diagram, were investigated by local Hall probe magnetometry. At first, we constructed the magnetic field profiles in the samples to determine when the first vortices penetrate into the sample. The observed dome-like shape of the profiles indicated that pinning is very small and that the vortex penetration is primarily governed by geometrical barriers, hence enabling us to determine the lower critical field, Hc1. A good agreement between theory and the Hc1(T) data was obtained by using a model with two energy gaps, even though the origin of the smaller energy gap in CuxTiSe2 cannot be related to its electronic structure. Combining those measurements with heat capacity measurements previously performed on these samples, we obtained a non trivial condensation energy. Moreover, measurements performed for various orientations of the magnetic field revealed the presence of a lock-in effect in CuxTiSe2, when superconducting vortices are trapped along a layered structure even for tilted magnetic fields. The orientation of the vortices was experimentally determined and could be well described by a model considering the presence of an additional layered structure in which superconductivity is at least partially suppressed. The lock-in effect was analysed in three different samples and we have shown that the strength of the lock-in is independent of the copper doping, even though this effect can be masked by strong demagnetisation effects in very thin samples. The strength of this lock-in effect indicates that the superconductivity is strongly suppressed on certain layered structure. The nature of this "extrinsic" pinning structure is still unknown but might be related to the recent observation of charge density waves domain walls which may induce strong variations of the superconducting order parameter.