Vortex state studies in a weakly pinned low Tc superconductor - Ca3Rh4Sn13

The study of vortex matter in type - II superconductors has gained great interest in contemporary condensed matter physics. The ternary stannide Ca3Rh4Sn13 is an isotropic weakly pinned low Tc superconductor which shows most of the anomalous properties like second magnetization peak (SMP), peak effect (PE), positive magnetization on field cooling (PMFC), etc. in its magnetization data. Hence, this material provides an ideal platform to investigate both the static and dynamics properties of the vortex matter. We focused on the magnetization studies of one batch of these single crystals (Tc ∝ 8.37 K), which have slightly high pinning strength than the previously reported Ca3Rh4Sn13 single crystals. The magnetization studies show a variety of new results like inverse melting of vortex matter, two critical current densities, switching of magnetization across the PMFC region, etc.


References

1. 	M. Suresh Babu, A. Thamizhavel, S. Ramakrishnan, C. V. Tomy, A. K. Grover and D. Pal, Superconductor Science and Technology 26 (2013) 125016.
2. 	M. Suresh Babu, A. Thamizhavel, S. Ramakrishnan, A. K. Grover and D.Pal, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (2015) (Accepted).