Phase transition between the Bragg Glass and a disordered Phase in Nb3Sn, detected by 3rd harmonics of the AC magnetic susceptibility

Abstract

We report additional experimental evidences about the presence of an universal behavior in the Field-Temperature Phase Diagram of Type II Superconductors. This behavior is characterized by a phase transition in the vortex matter between the disordered and the Bragg Glass phase. The experimental detection of a Peak Effect phenomenon has been proved to be strictly connected to the existence of this phase transition. In this paper, we show the first observation of a Peak Effect in the compound Nb3Sn, by using 1st harmonics of the AC magnetic susceptibility. Peak Effect has been detected at fields between 3T and 13T, whereas it is not observable at higher fields. This seems to be in contrast with the theoretical predictions of such a phase transition at all fields. Nevertheless, by measuring the 3rd harmonics of the AC susceptibility, this phase transition has been detected up to our highest available field (19 T), thus demonstrating the necessity of the higher harmonics analysis in studying these topics and moreover proving the validity of the theoretical predictions.

arXiv comment4 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• The Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Type II superconductors in magnetic field
• Thermodynamic origin of the peak effect in the superconductor Nb3Sn
• Thermal fluctuations and vortex melting in the classical superconductor Nb3Sn from high-resolution specific-heat measurements
• First critical field measurements of superconducting films by third harmonic analysis
• Magnetocaloric Studies of the Peak Effect in Nb
• Application of a small oscillating magnetic field to reveal the peak effect in the resistivity of Nb3Sn
• Ac-magnetic susceptibility in the peak-effect region of Nb${}_3$Sn
• Nonpertubative Many-Body Theory for the Two-Dimensional Hubbard Model at Low Temperature: From Weak to Strong Coupling Regimes