Arresting of vortex motion in YBaCuO crystals with splay in columnar defects

Abstract We show that at high temperatures, the columnar defects generated in YBaCuO crystals by 0.58 GeV 116 Sn 30+ have a natural splay of ≈10° and produce a 10 times larger persistent current density and a 10 times smaller creep rate, than well aligned tracks created by 1.08 GeV 197 Sn 23+ , with splay of only ≈2°.