THERMODYNAMIC STUDY AND INTRINSIC TYPE-II SUPERCONDUCTIVITY IN THE A-15 COMPOUND V3SI

The specific heat of a single crystal of the A-15-type compound V3Si in the normal, mixed, and superconducting states has been measured from 4 to 30 K in magnetic fields up to 50 kOe. The analysis has been performed in a self-consistent way based on the second-order phase transition from the normal to the superconducting state. The thermodynamic critical field and then various physical parameters characterizing the superconducting and normal states are almost consistently derived from the thermodynamics and the microscopic BCS-GLAG theory. It is confirmed that V3Si is an intrinsic type II superconductor with a high intrinsic GL parameter κ0. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.