Temperature dependence of the flux line lattice transition into square symmetry in superconducting LuNi2B2C

M R Eskildsen; A B Abrahamsen; V G Kogan; P L Gammel; K Mortensen; N H Andersen; P C Canfield

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5148

Temperature dependence of the flux line lattice transition into square symmetry in superconducting LuNi2B2C

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 May 28;86(22):5148-51. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5148.

Authors

M R Eskildsen¹, A B Abrahamsen, V G Kogan, P L Gammel, K Mortensen, N H Andersen, P C Canfield

Affiliation

¹ Risø National Laboratory, P.O. Box 49, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. [email protected]

PMID: 11384443
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.5148

Abstract

We have investigated the temperature dependence of the H parallel to c flux line lattice structural phase transition from square to hexagonal symmetry, in the tetragonal superconductor LuNi2B2C ( T(c) = 16.6 K). At temperatures below 10 K the transition onset field, H2(T), is only weakly temperature dependent. Above 10 K, H2(T) rises sharply, bending away from the upper critical field. This contradicts theoretical predictions of H2(T) merging with the upper critical field and suggests that just below the H(c2)(T) curve the flux line lattice might be hexagonal.