Specific heat of superconducting films: Effect of inhomogeneities

Contributions to the specific heat per component of an n-component two dimensional Ginzburg--Landau field are computer to orger g for n = infinity, where g proportional lambda2 < [delta T/sub c/(x)]2 > /sub c/ is a measure of the strength of the system inhomogeneity and lambda very-much less than xi is the range of correlations for variations delta T/sub c/(x) in the local transition temperature. For a two-component alloy g is found to be proportional c (1-c)(d lnT/sub c//dc)2, where c is the concentration of one component. The order-g contribution C/sup (g)/ is compared to the order-1/n contribution C/sup(1/n)/ to the specific heat of the homogeneous system. It is found that C/sup (g)/ is negative in the temperature range for which C/sup (1/n)/ is positive, and tends to cancel the peak in the specific heat associated with the O (1/n) contribution. This result may explain why no peak was observed in the experiment of Zally and Mochel