Direct visualization of local interaction forces in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta vortex matter

We study the local vortex-vortex interaction force f(i) of the structure frozen during a field-cooling process in an electron-irradiated Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta sample. We compute this magnitude from snapshots of the vortex structure obtained via magnetic decoration experiments at various fields H in the same sample. Since the observed structures correspond to the equilibrium ones frozen at T similar to T-irr(H)[1], at this temperature the local modulus of f(i) roughly equals the local pinning force at the decorated surface of the sample. We estimate the most probable local pinning force from the mode value of the fi(r) distribution, f(p)(m). We found that f(p)(m) grows algebraically with H and in electron-irradiated samples is 50-20% smaller than for samples with columnar defects. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.