Disorder-induced power-law response of a superconducting vortex on a plane

We report drive-response experiments on individual superconducting vortices on a plane, a realization for a (1+1)-dimensional directed polymer in random media. For this we use magnetic force microscopy to image and manipulate individual vortices trapped on a twin boundary in YBa₂Cu₃O₇-δ near optimal doping. We find that when we drag a vortex with the magnetic tip, it moves in a series of jumps. As theory suggests, the jump-size distribution does not depend on the applied force and is consistent with power-law behavior. The measured power is much larger than widely accepted theoretical calculations.