PhD. Topics

Calorimetry of superconductors

Condensed matter physics

RNDr. Jozef Kačmarčík, PhD.

Contact:

Faculty of Science, P.J. Safarik University

Since the discovery of the two-gap superconductivity in MgB2, further examples of this already exceptional characteristic have been continuously investigated. In addition, the study of competing orders in superconductors, where superconductivity coexists or competes with, for example, magnetic order or charge density waves, is an interesting topic at present. The aim of this thesis is to study selected superconductors by various calorimetric methods, mainly by ac-microcalorimetry. In particular, the work will focus on superconductors with competing order parameters, namely the measurement of their heat capacity at different temperatures and magnetic fields. The aim will be to determine from the measured data the basic characteristics of the studied superconductor such as its critical temperature, strength of Cooper pair coupling, type of pairing, critical magnetic fields, anisotropy of superconducting properties, etc. To do this, it will be necessary to learn the basics of ac microcalorimetry technique, preparation and implementation of experiments, processing and interpretation of measured data, presentation of results at domestic and foreign conferences and publication of original results in foreign scientific journals.

Literatúra / Literature:
[1] M. Tinkham, Introduction to superconductivity, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, 1996.
[2] Yaakov Kraftmakher, Modulation Calorimetry: Theory And Applications, Springer-Verlag, 2004.
[3] A. Tari, The Specific Heat of Matter at Low Temperatures, Imperial College Press, London, 2003.