THREADING DISLOCATION LINES IN 2-SIDED FLUX-ARRAY DECORATIONS

Two-sided flux decoration experiments indicate that threading dislocat ion lines (TDL's), which cross the entire film, are sometimes trapped in metastable states. We calculate the elastic energy associated with the meanderings of a TDL. The TDL behaves as an anisotropic and disper sive string with thermal fluctuations largely along its Burger's vecto r. These fluctuations also modify the structure factor of the vortex s olid. Both effects can, in principle, be used to estimate the elastic moduli of the material. [S0163-1829(97)05842-6].