Magnetic-Field Variations of the Pair-Breaking Effects of Superconductivity in (TMTSF)2ClO4

Abstract

We have studied the onset temperature of the superconductivity Tc_onset of the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2ClO4, by precisely controlling the direction of the magnetic field H. We compare the results of two samples with nearly the same onset temperature but with different scattering relaxation time tau. We revealed a complicated interplay of a variety of pair-breaking effects and mechanisms that overcome these pair-breaking effects. In low fields, the linear temperature dependences of the onset curves in the H-T phase diagrams are governed by the orbital pair-breaking effect. The dips in the in-plane field-angle phi dependence of Tc_onset, which were only observed in the long-tau sample, provides definitive evidence that the field-induced dimensional crossover enhances the superconductivity if the field direction is more than about 19-degrees away from the a axis. In the high-field regime for H//a, the upturn of the onset curve for the long-tau sample indicates a new superconducting state that overcomes the Pauli pair-breaking effect but is easily suppressed by impurity scatterings. The Pauli effect is also overcome for H//b' by a realization of another state for which the maximum of Tc_onset(phi) occurs in a direction different from the crystalline axes. The effect on Tc_onset of tilting the applied field out of the conductive plane suggests that the Pauli effect plays a significant role in determining Tc_onset. The most plausible explanation of these results is that (TMTSF)2ClO4 is a singlet superconductor and exhibits Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) states in high fields.