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

We show that at high temperatures, the columnar defects generated in YBaCuO crystals by 0.58 GeV 116Sn30+ 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 197Sn23+, with splay of only ≈2°. © 1994.