REDUCING VORTEX MOTION IN YBA2CU3O7 CRYSTALS WITH SPLAY IN COLUMNAR DEFECTS

A strategy to boost the current-carrying capacity of cuprate supercond uctors beyond the levels attainable with parallel columnar defects was recently proposed. It consists of the enforcement of vortex entanglem ent by controlled splay of columns. We demonstrate the validity of thi s suggestion in YBa2Cu3O2 single crystals using the difference in spla y naturally occurring in irradiations with two ions differing in mass and energy. The terminal dispersion of the columns produced by 0.58-Ge V Sn-116(30+) is about 10-degrees, as compared with 1-degrees for 1.08 -GeV Au-197(23+). At high temperatures, this large splay results in a persistent current density one order of magnitude larger and a creep r ate one order of magnitude smaller.