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arXiv · cond-mat/0307349

Unusual magnetic field-induced phase transition in the mixed state of superconducting NbSe2

Abstract

The thermal conductivity κin the basal plane of single-crystalline hexagonal NbSe2 has been measured as a function of magnetic field H, oriented both along and perpendicular to the c-axis, at several temperatures below T_c. With the magnetic field in the basal plane and oriented parallel to the heat flux we observed, in fields well below H_c2, an unexpected hysteretic behavior of κ(H) with all the generic features of a first order phase transition. The transition is not manifest in the κ(H) curves, if H is still in the basal plane but oriented perpendicularly to the heat-flux direction. The origin of the transition is not yet understood.

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A. V. Sologubenko, I. L. Landau, H. R. Ott, A. Bilusic, A. Smontara, H. Berger. 2003-07-15. Unusual magnetic field-induced phase transition in the mixed state of superconducting NbSe2. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.91.197005

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