Comparison on plasticity of current-driven vortex lattices in as-grown and heavy ion irradiated microbridge Bi2Sr2Ca1Cu2O8+δ single crystals Original Research Article

From the I–V characteristics for as-grown and irradiated Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals at T=5 K in a magnetic field applied parallel to the c axis, we have seen two types of vortex dynamics near the depinning threshold. For the as-grown sample, at low field, the I–V curves show steps that clearly indicate a “fingerprint phenomenon” since they reflect the current dependence of differential resistance Rd=dV/dI. This can be ascribed to vortices flow through uncorrelated channels for the highly defective lattice. As fields sufficiently increase, these peaks merge, giving broader ones, indicating a crossover from filamentary strings to braid river. In contrast, in the irradiated sample, the pinning is found to be individual at low magnetic fields and collective when the vortex–vortex interactions are involved. Our result suggests a dynamic nature of the peak effect, in agreement with recent numerical simulations and experimental works.