Fluctuation Study of the Specific Heat of MgB2

Abstract

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 $ξ_{0}=26$ Å. The transition-width broadening in field is treated in terms of lowest-Landau-level (LLL) fluctuations. That analysis requires that $ξ_{0}=20$ Å. 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.