The Interpretation of Magnetisation and Entropy Jumps in the Mixed State of High-Temperature Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nature of magnetisation and entropy jumps in high-temperature superconductors, emphasizing the importance of sample shape and local magnetic field effects, leading to revised estimates of entropy changes.

Contribution

It clarifies the relationship between magnetisation jumps, local magnetic fields, and entropy changes, and reinterprets experimental data to refine understanding of phase transitions in high-Tc superconductors.

Findings

Magnetisation jumps depend on sample shape and intermediate state effects.

The entropy change per flux line can be as high as 4.0 k_B, higher than previous estimates.

Local magnetic field measurements are consistent with a boundary region of about 20 flux-line spacings.

Abstract

In the high-temperature superconductor BSCCO, local measurements of magnetic field at the surface of a crystal in the mixed state show sharp changes as a function of applied field or temperature. We show that if `intermediate state' effects are accounted for, a first-order transition leads to a sharp jump in the global magnetisation only in the case of samples that are significantly non-ellipsoidal in shape. We also investigate the relationship between a jump in magnetisation, M, and the associated change in the B-field immediately above the crystal surface and show that deltaM is expected to be twice deltaB/muo. In addition, we emphasise that the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship between magnetisation jump and entropy jump should involve the local H-field, not the B-field or the applied H-field. Re-interpreting some published experimental data leads to the conclusion that the entropy change can be as much as 4.0 kB per flux line per layer, compared with less than 2 kB previously reported. We present and analyse new experimental data on local field jumps and global magnetisation measurements and find that they agree with the above. We also show that these data are consistent with the boundary region between the liquid and solid phases having a width of around 20 flux-line spacings at a field of 10 mT.