Fluctuation Study of the Specific Heat of MgB2


Abstract in English

The specific heat of polycrystalline Mg$^{11}$B$_{2}$ has been measured with high resolution ac calorimetry from 5 to 45 K at constant magnetic fields. The excess specific heat above T$_{c}$ is discussed in terms of Gaussian fluctuations and suggests that Mg$^{11}$B$_{2}$ is a bulk superconductor with Ginzburg-Landau coherence length $xi_{0}=26$ AA . The transition-width broadening in field is treated in terms of lowest-Landau-level (LLL) fluctuations. That analysis requires that $xi_{0}=20$ AA . The underestimate of the coherence length in field, along with deviations from 3D LLL predictions, suggest that there is an influence from the anisotropy of B$_{c2}$ between the c-axis and the a-b plane.

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