Direct evidence for an effect of twin boundaries on flux pinning in single-crystal YBa2Cu3O6+x

Abstract

Magnetization measurements are reported on a nearly cubic single crystal ${\mathrm{YBa}}_2$ ${\mathrm{Cu}}_3$ ${\mathrm{O}}_{6+\mathrm{x}}$ which displays predominantly one variant of twin boundary. With this crystal, we were able to compare the effects of different vortex and twin-boundary orientations on magnetic behavior. The results demonstrate that there is a measurable effect due direct pinning of vortices by twin boundaries for applied fields perpendicular to the c axis. We also show that the large anisotropy in flux pinning for applied fields parallel and perpendicular to the c axis is not due to pinning by twin boundaries.