Role of the cooling rate in the stability of the superconducting phase of (TMTSF) ₂ ClO ₄

Abstract

The noncentrosymmetric ClO4 anions of the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2ClO4 order below 24K. The size of domains where the anions are ordered is substantially dependent on the cooling rate which is a key parameter for the stability of the low temperature electronic ground states. We study the effect of the cooling rate on the SC phase within a self consistent approach in the framework of the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory taking into account the superconducting fluctuations. We derive the superconducting transition temperature which is found to decrease with increasing cooling rate in agreement with recent experimental data.

Inhomogeneous superconductivity in organic conductors: the role of disorder and magnetic field

“…We then present the outlines of the model we derived in Ref. [36] to qualitatively interpret the dependence of T c on the cooling rate in (TMTSF) 2 ClO 4 . The key point lacking in Ref.…”

“…The key point lacking in Ref. [36] is the correspondence between the theoretical parameters and the experimental disorder texture necessary to provide a quantitative comparison with the experimental results. In the remainder of the section, we propose a method the extract the values of these parameters from the experimental data.…”

“…Recently, we have proposed a model to describe the suppression of the superconducting transition temperature with increasing cooling rate in (TMTSF) 2 ClO 4 [36]. Basically, the model concerns a layered superconductor, where each layer, corresponding to the most conducting plane, has a phase segregation structure with superconducting domains embedded in a non-superconducting host.…”

“…[36]). However, a quantitative comparison with the experimental results requires the determination of the relationship between the Josephson couplings and the segregated structure induced by disorder.…”

“…We then present a quantitative comparison with experiments which was lacking in Ref. [36]. In the present work, we give a detailed analysis of the experimental data in quasi-1D and 2D organic superconductors to infer the key parameters used in our model.…”