Thickness effects on the pinning by columnar defects

A. SILHANEK, 1, J. GUIMPEL, 1, L. CIVALE, H. LANZA AND P. LEVY

PHYSICA C - SUPERCONDUTIVITY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: New York; Año: 2000 vol. 341 p. 1217 - 1218

0921-4534

Available online 12 April 2001. Abstract We compare the angular dependence of the pinning of equivalent columnar defects in GdBa2Cu3O7 thin films and a thicker YBa2Cu3O7 single crystal. The tracks' related enhancement of the critical currents is much smaller for the case of the thin films. We interpret this thickness dependence as resulting from a competition between the pinning of the correlated structures, related to total sample thickness, and surface boundary conditions, which force the vortices to depin from the columnar defects near the sample surface.