Switchable superconducting elements and pixels arrays

This patent describes a multielement control or display device. It comprises: an array of discrete flat, intrinsically continuous superconductive elements in mutually parallel rows and, orthogonal to aid rows, in mutually parallel columns and constituting individual pixels of the array, each of the superconductive elements being composed of a material having a critical temperature below which the superconductive element is in a superconductive stat and above which the superconductive element is in a nonsuperconductive state and a critical current density below which the superconductive element is in the superconductive state and above which the superconductive element is in the nonsuperconductive state, the superconductive elements also switching between the state upon application of a critical magnetic field, whereby applied current traversing the elements, applied temperatures of the elements and applied magnetic fields affecting the elements form state-changing parameters of the elements; and means for selectively applying at least on of the parameters to at least selected one of the elements to quench the selected ones of the elements to provide selected directly optically discernible patterns of the pixels of the array