Magnetic field induced enlargement of the regime of critical fluctuations in the classical superconductor V₃Si from high-resolution specific heat experiments

Abstract

We present high-resolution specific heat data from a high-purity single crystal of the classical superconductor V 3 Si, which reveal tiny lambda-shape anomalies at the superconducting transition superimposed onto the BCS specific heat jump in magnetic fields of 2 T and higher. The appearance of these anomalies is accompanied by a magnetic-fieldinduced broadening of the superconducting transition. We demonstrate, using scaling relations predicted by the fluctuation models of the 3d-XY and the 3d-Lowest-Landau-Level (3d-LLL) universality class that the effect of critical fluctuations becomes experimentally observable due to of a magnetic field-induced enlargement of the regime of critical fluctuations. The scaling indicates that a reduction of the effective dimensionality due to the confinement of quasiparticles into low Landau levels is responsible for this effect.