High-accuracy differential thermal analysis: A tool for calorimetric investigations on small high-temperature-superconductor specimens
- Laboratorium fuer Festkoerperphysik, Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule Hoenggerberg, 8093 Zuerich (Switzerland)
We describe a technique for measuring small heat capacities below room temperature, which represents a simple but significant improvement of the conventional differential thermal-analysis (DTA) method by means of high-precision electronic components. It is thereby possible to measure the heat capacity {ital C}({ital T}) of milligram samples with a relative accuracy {delta}{ital C}/{ital C}{lt}0.02%. This simple and fast DTA method is suitable not only to detect the specific-heat discontinuity at {ital T}{sub {ital c}} of high-temperature superconductors, but also to study the thermodynamics at the irreversibility boundary {ital H}{sub irr}({ital T}) in the magnetic phase diagram of cuprate superconductors. From respective measurements on a YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} single crystal, we deduce an upper limit for a latent heat {ital L} associated with a hypothetical first-order transition at {ital H}{sub irr}({ital T}), namely {ital L}{lt}0.05{ital k}{sub {ital B}}{ital T} per vortex per layer for an external field {mu}{sub 0}{ital H}=7 T parallel to the {ital c} axis of the investigated specimen.
- OSTI ID:
- 249441
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter, Vol. 52, Issue 13; Other Information: PBD: 1 Oct 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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