Anomalous broadening of specific heat jump at Tc in high-entropy-alloy-type superconductor TrZr2

A high-entropy-alloy-type (HEA-type) superconductor is new category of highly disordered superconductors. Therefore, finding brand-new superconducting characteristics in the HEA-type superconductors would open new avenue to investigate the relationship between structural disorder and superconductivity. Here, we report on the remarkable broadening of specific heat jump near a superconducting transition tempreature (Tc) in transition-metal zirconides (TrZr2) with different mixing entropy ({Delta}Smix) at the Tr site. With increasing {Delta}Smix, the superconducting transition seen in specific heat became broader, whereas those seen in magnetization were commonly sharp. Therefore the broadening of specific heat jump would be related to the microscopic inhomogeneity of the formation of Cooper pairs behind the emergence of bulk superconductivity states.