We report on vortex confinement phenomena in mesoscopic superconducting samples of different connectivity: singly connected dot, dot with two microholes ("antidots") and dot with four antidots. For these structures, we study the crossover from the "network" regime in low fields to the giant vortex state in high fieldd. Flux dynamics and pinning are investigated in superconductors with huge regular arrays of artificial pinning centers (antidots or magnetic dots). In films with an antidot lattice, Shapiro steps, induced by rf irradiation, have been observed. In films with a lattice of magnetic dots, stable vortex configurations have been identified using scanning Hall probe microscopy.
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