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Heat-capacity measurements of YBa sub 2 Cu sub 3 O sub 7 minus. delta. near Tc : Fluctuation effects in a bulk superconductor

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5462658
The samples are high-quality single crystals, several of which display untwinned regions making up at least 50% of the sample mass. The heat-capacity data show a cusp-like anomaly instead of the discontinuous step observed in classic superconductors. This divergence is indicative of the presence of fluctuation contributions and is due to the exceptionally short Ginzburg-Landau coherence length of this material. Because there is considerable uncertainty in the temperature of cross-over from mean-field to critical behavior, the zero-field heat-capacity data are analyzed both as a lowest-order correction to mean-field BCS theory (the Gaussian approximation) and in terms of true critical behavior. The analysis shows that the data are best described within the Gaussian approximation as three-dimensional fluctuations of a two-component order parameter, but the results do not rule out a more complicated order parameter, but the results do not rule out a more complicated order parameter or a logarithmic (critical) divergence. Application of a magnetic field broadens and suppresses the heat capacity transition, with no apparent shift in the onset of superconductivity, and with the effects more pronounced for fields applied parallel to the c-axis that for fields in the ab-plane.
Research Organization:
Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL (United States)
OSTI ID:
5462658
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English