  We created local pinning modulations in YBCO films by means of confined high
energy heavy ion irradiation. The high energy of the ions allows us to
introduce nanometric size defects with a well defined anisotropy. The dose was
chosen in such a way to reduce the local critical current of the irradiated
area. We used a quantitative magneto-optical analysis to measure the magnetic
field vector and the supercurrent for each point of the whole sample surface.
The basic geometry of a rectangular region inside strip-shaped samples was
considered in order to investigate in detail the effect of the orientation of
planar boundaries with respect to the supercurrent flow direction. Here we
present the two complementary orientations of the modulated region, i.e.,
perpendicular and parallel to the main supercurrent flow. The comparison of the
magnetic field and supercurrent distributions shows deep differences between
the two configurations. In particular, the enhanced vortex diffusion, observed
for the perpendicular case, was not found in the parallel configuration. In a
such case, unexpected vortex bundle jumps and a Meissner volume compression are
clearly observed after the vortices enter the irradiated region.
