T. Hanaguri et al., CROSSOVER FROM THE FIRST-ORDER VORTEX PHASE-TRANSITION TO THE PEAK EFFECT IN BI2SR2CACU2OY HAVING DIFFERENT OXYGEN CONTENTS, Physica. C, Superconductivity, 256(1-2), 1996, pp. 111-118
We have measured the magnetization and the heat capacity of over-doped
(OVD) and optimally doped (OPD) Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy single crystals in the
mixed state under magnetic fields applied along the c-axis. In both sa
mples, a distinct magnetization step is observed in the magnetization
curve at high temperatures and is found to change to a kink at low tem
peratures. At still lower temperatures, the peak effect dominates the
magnetization curve and the kink vanishes. The origin of the step and
the kink in the magnetization curve is considered to be the first-orde
r phase transition in a quasi-three-dimensional vortex system although
the heat capacity shows little anomalies at the transition because th
e latent heat is small. The first-order phase transition line of each
sample is drawn on the H-T plane and it is found that the slope of the
line of the OVD sample is steeper than that of the OPD sample. The en
tropy jump at the transition of the OVD sample is estimated to be larg
er than that of the OPD one at all temperatures and magnetic fields st
udied. This behavior is contradictory to the simple vortex-lattice mel
ting picture.