Intrinsic thermodynamic properties of the pyrochlore superconductor RbOs2O6 extracted by condensation energy analysis

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to analyze thermodynamic data of superconductors with non-ideal samples, extracting intrinsic properties, and applies it to RbOs2O6, revealing its strong type-II, intermediate-coupling superconducting nature with conventional pairing.

Contribution

A new general procedure based on condensation energy analysis to determine intrinsic superconductor properties from bulk data with secondary phases.

Findings

RbOs2O6 is a strong type-II superconductor with kappa(Tc)=23.

The Sommerfeld coefficient is 79 μJ/g/K^2, indicating enhanced electronic density of states.

The superconductor exhibits conventional s-wave pairing and an electron-phonon coupling constant around 1.

Abstract

We develop a general procedure for the analysis of bulk thermodynamic data of a superconductor for samples containing a metallic non-superconducting second phase. The method is based on the condensation energy and it allows the extraction of the intrinsic properties of a superconductor even for non-ideal samples. Applying this procedure to the recently discovered geometrically frustrated beta-pyrochlore superconductor RbOs2O6 (Tc = 6.4 K) yields a Sommerfeld coefficient as high as 79 mu J/g/K^2 (44 mJ/mol_f.u./K^2). RbOs2O6 is inferred to be a strong type-II superconductor (kappa(Tc) = 23) in the intermediate-coupling regime similar to niobium (lambda_ep \approx 1). From the upper critical field mu_0 H_c2 \approx 6 T at 0 K, we estimate a Ginzburg-Landau coherence length xi \approx 74 AA. The condensation energy is 860 mu J/g (483 mJ/mol_f.u.) resulting in 1/(8 pi) (gamma_1 Tc^2)/DeltaU_1 \approx 0.15, a value well in the range of conventional phonon-mediated superconductors. The superconducting electronic specific heat indicates conventional s-wave pairing. The experimental Sommerfeld coefficient of 44 mJ/mol_f.u./K^2 is about 4 times larger than the one found in band structure calculations. Together with the electron-phonon coupling constant lambda_ep \approx 1 this leaves an additional lambda_add \approx 2.4 for enhancement due to other mechanisms.