Damping of the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations in the superconducting state of MgB_2

Abstract

The de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) signal arising from orbits on the $π$ Fermi surface sheet of the two-gap superconductor MgB$_2$ has been observed in the vortex state below $H_{c2}$. An extra attenuation of the dHvA signal, beyond those effects described in the conventional Lifshitz-Kosevich expression, is seen due to the opening of the superconducting gap. Our data show that the $π$ band gap is still present up to $H_{c2}$. The data are compared to current theories of dHvA oscillations in the superconducting state which allow us to extract estimates for the evolution of the $π$ band gap with magnetic field. Contrary to results for other materials, we find that the most recent theories dramatically underestimate the damping in MgB$_2$.

10 pages with figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B. PDF version with higher quality figures can be found at http://www.phy.bris.ac.uk/research/cond_matt/PdfPubs/mgb2RSdhva.pdf