Interaction of two-dimensional vortices with linear ion tracks in the highly anisotropic layered cuprates

The effects,of Linear, ion-track pinning centers on the resistive dissipation and critical current density J(c) are investigated in the highly anisotropic T1-cuprate superconductors. At some fields, the data rigorously follow two-dimensional (2D) scaling without irradiation, but the irradiated samples show a dip in dissipation for fields parallel to the ion tracks, indicating 3D effects. Also the effective pinning field of the defects is found robe temperature dependent: it rises to many times the ion-dose field for temperatures well below T-c. These results imply that vortex-vortex interactions need to be included for a quantitative understanding.