Experimental search for anisotropic flux flow resistivity in thea-bplane of optimally doped epitaxial thin films ofYBa2Cu3O7−δ

Abstract

Transport measurements along the node and antinode directions in the a-b plane of optimally doped and epitaxial thin films of ${\mathrm{YBa}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$ (YBCO) are reported. Low bias magnetoresistance measurements near and below ${T}_{c}$ show that the flux flow resistivity along the node and antinode directions vs magnetic field are indistinguishable. This result suggests that within the experimental error of our measurements, no correspondence is found between the flux pinning properties in YBCO and the $d$-wave nature of the order parameter.