Abstract
Type II superconductors, consisting of superconducting domains embedded in a normal or insulating matrix, undergo a rounded phase transition. Indeed, the correlation length cannot grow beyond the spatial extent of the domains. Accordingly, the thermodynamic properties will exhibit a finite size effect. It is shown that the specific heat and penetration depth data of a variety of type II superconductors, including cuprates, exhibit the characteristic properties of a finite size effect, arising from domains with nanoscale extent. The finite size scaling analysis reveals essential features of the mechanism. Transition temperature and superfluidity increase with reduced domain size. The combined finite size and isotope effects uncover the relevance of local lattice distortions.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
G. Bednorz and K. A. Muller, Z. Phys. B 64 189 (1986).
J. Mesot, P. Allensbach, U. Staub, and A. Furrer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 70 865 (1993).
A. Furrer, P. Allensbach, M. Guillaume, W. Henggeler, J. Mest, and S. Rosenkranz, Physica C 235–240 261 (1994).
J. Liu, J. Wan, A. Goldman, Y. Chang, and P. Jiang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67 2195 (1991).
A. Chang, Z. Rong, Y. Ivanchenko, F. Lu, and E. Wolf, Phys. Rev. B 46 5692 (1992).
T. Cren, D. Roditchev, W. Sacks, J. Klein, J.-B. Moussy, C. Deville-Cavellin, and M. Laguës, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84 147 (2000).
K. M. Lang, V. Madhavan, J. E. Hoffman, E. W. Hudson, H. Eisaki, S. Uchida, and J. C. Davis, Nature 415 413 (2002).
C. Renner and ⊘. Fischer, Phys. Rev. B 51 9208 (1995).
T. Schneider, cond-mat/0210702 (unpublished).
T. Schneider, R. Khasanov, K. Conder, and H. Keller, J. Phys. Condens. Matter, 15 L763 (2003).
M. E. Fisher, in Critical Phenomena, Proceedings of the 1970 International School of Physics Enrico Fermi, Course 51, M. S. Green, ed. (Academic Press, New York, 1971), p. 1.
T. Schneider and J. M. Singer, Phase Transition Approach to High Temperature Superconductivity (Imperial College Press, London, 2000), p. 186.
A. Peliasetto and E. Vicari, cond/mat/0012164 (unpublished).
M. Roulin, A. Junod, and E. Walker, Physica C 296 137 (1998).
A. Mirmelstein, A. Junod, E. Walker, B. Revaz, Y.-Y. Genoud, and G. Triscone, J. Supercond. 10 527 (1997).
D. Sanchez, A. Junod, J. Muller, H. Berger, and F. Levy, Physica B 204 167 (1995).
L. Lyard et al., cond-mat/020623 (unpublished).
B. Janossy, D. Prost, S. Pekker, and L. Fruchter, Physica C 181 91 (1991).
S. Blanchard, C. Marcenat, J. Marcus, T. Klein, and A. Sulpice, Physica C 369 193 (2002).
A. Carrington, C. Marcenat, F. Bouquet, D. Colson, A. Bertinotti, J. F. Marucco, and J. Hammann, Phys. Rev. B55 8674 (1997).
T. Schneider and J. M. Singer, Physica C 341–348 87 (2000).
A. Junod, A. Erb, and C. Renner, Physica C 317/318 333 (1999).
A. Mirmelstein, A. Junod, G. Triscone, K.-Q. Wang, and J. Muller, Physica C 248 335 (1995).
A. Junod et al., Physica C 229 209 (1994).
P. C. Hohenberg, A. Aharony, B. I. Halperin, and E. P. Siggia, Phys. Rev. B 13 2986 (1976).
T. Jacobs, S. Sridhar, Q. Li, G. D. Gu, and N. Koshizuka, Phys. Rev. Lett. 75 4516 (1995).
S. F. Lee et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 71 3862 (1993).
K. D. Osborn, D. J. Van Harlingen, Vivek Aji, N. Goldenfeld, S. Oh, and J. N. Eckstein, cond-mat/0204417.
R. Khasanov et al., J. Phys. Condensed Matter 15 L17 (2003).
K. Conder et al., in Phase Separation in Cuprate Superconductors, E. Sigmund and K. A. Muller, eds. (Springer, Berling, 1994), p. 210.
F. Raffa, T. Ohno, M. Mali, J. Roos, D. Brinkmann, K. Conder, and M. Eremin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 5912 (1998).
J.-H. Chung et al., Phys. Rev. B 67 014517 (2003).
T. Schneider, Phys. Rev. B 67 134514 (2003).
T. Schneider, Europhys. Lett. 60 141 (2002).
T. Schneider, Physica B 326 289 (2003).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schneider, T. Probing Inhomogeneities in Type II Superconductors by Means of Thermal Fluctuations, Magnetic Fields, and Isotope Effects. Journal of Superconductivity 17, 41–48 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOSC.0000011838.70984.4b
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOSC.0000011838.70984.4b