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

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.