Thermally assisted flux flow and individual vortex pinning in Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 single crystals grown by the traveling solvent floating zone technique

Magnetoresisitivity and critical current density Jc as a function of temperature and field are studied for Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 single crystals grown using the traveling solvent floating zone technique. Below a characteristic field B*, Jc as a function of field exhibits a field-independent plateau associated with thermally activated pinning of individual vortices. Analysis of resistive transition broadening revealed that thermally activated flux flow is found to be responsible for the resistivity contribution in the vicinity of Tc. The activation energy U0 is 800 K in low field, scales as B–1/6 for BB–1/2 for B>2 T.