Arresting vortex motion in YBaCuO crystals with splay in columnar defects

摘要

Results show that the splay in the orientation of the columnar defects (produced by heavy ion irradiation) has a significant effect on dynamics of the vortices. 0.58 GeV (sup 116)Sn(sup 30+) and 1.08 GeV (sup 197)Au(sup 23+) ions were used to irradiated YBaCuO single crystals. At high temperatures, the larger splay of the Sn tracks (10(degree)) results in a current density one order of magnitude larger and a creep rate on order of magnitude smaller than the Au irradiation (1(degree)). This indicates that a considerable further improvement of the current carrying capacity of high temperature superconductors can still be obtained.