Thermodynamics of a Heavy Ion-Irradiated Superconductor: the Zero-Field Transition

Abstract

Specific heat measurements show that the introduction of amorphous columnar defects considerably affects the transition from the normal to the superconducting state in zero magnetic field. Experimental results are compared to numerical simulations of the 3D XY model for both the pure system and the system containing random columnar disorder. The numerics reproduce the salient features of experiment, showing in particular that the specific heat peak changes from cusp-like to smoothly rounded when columnar defects are added. By considering the specific heat critical exponent alpha, we argue that such behavior is consistent with recent numerical work [Vestergren et al., PRB 70, 054508 (2004)] showing that the introduction of columnar defects changes the universality class of the transition.

arXiv comment4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (5)

• The critical exponents of the superfluid transition in He4
• The superconductor-insulator transition in 2D dirty boson systems
• Thermodynamics of the vortex liquid in heavy ion-irradiated superconductors
• The Effect of Columnar Disorder on the Superconducting Transition of a Type-II Superconductor in Zero Applied Magnetic Field
• Nucleation of Stable Superconductivity in YBCO-Films