Phase Transition in High Temperature Superconductivity

Abstract

The onset of superconductivity is accompanied by abrupt changes in various thermodynamic properties, which is the hallmark of a phase transition. At the superconducting transition, it suffers a discontinuous jump and, therefore, ceases to be linear resulting in change of volume, specific heat and entropy at the critical temperatureTC . Phase transitions are of first order when the latent heat L  0 , and are of the second-order phase transition when there is a specific heat jump at the transition temperature TC . In this study the variation of specific heat capacity with temperature for high temperature superconductors changes discontinuously but does not become infinite at TC showing a finite specific heat jump at the transition temperature and hence the phase transition is of second order.

Keywords: Phase Transition, Superconductivity, Critical Temperature