Specific heat in superconductors

Abstract

Specific heat is a powerful tool to investigate the physical properties of condensed materials. Superconducting state is achieved through the condensation of paired electrons, namely, the Cooper pairs. The condensed Cooper pairs have lower entropy compared with that of electrons in normal metal, thus specific heat is very useful in detecting the low lying quasiparticle excitations of the superconducting condensate and the pairing symmetry of the superconducting gap. In this brief overview, we will give an introduction to the specific heat investigation of the physical properties of superconductors. We show the data obtained in cuprate and iron based superconductors to reveal the pairing symmetry of the order parameter.