Superconducting fluctuations in specific heat in a magnetic field: dimensional crossover

Abstract

The fluctuation specific heat of layered superconductors in zero and finite magnetic fields and above the transition temperature is studied in the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) scheme. The dimensional crossover behavior is explored. Estimates and consequences for experiments are presented for $\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$. The effect of including the quartic order-parameter term in the GL free energy is investigated for the layered case.