Influence of crystal defects on the irreversibility line of YBa2Cu3O7-x single crystals

High quality flux grown and defect enriched peritectically grown YBa₂Cu₃O_7–x single crystals have been investigated by an ac-susceptibility technique. This method allows to determine an irreversibility line from the temperature and field dependence of the peaked imaginary part of the susceptibility, which is due to magnetic losses. For magnetic fieldsH _ac perpendicular to thec-axis of the crystal, the irreversibility line of the defect enriched crystal shows a shift to higher field values as compared to the perfect crystal, a sign that crystal defects like Y₂BaCuO₅(211)-precipitates and microcracks act as strong pinning centers. ForH _ac parallel to thec-axis no clear evidence for a stronger pinning is found. From these results we conclude that different pinning mechanisms are dominating at different field orientations.