We report specific heat measurements in neutron irradiated MgB2 samples, for which the critical temperature has been suppressed down to 8.5 K, but the superconducting transition remains extremely sharp, indicative of a defect structure extremely homogeneous. Our results demonstrate that the two-gap feature is evident in the temperature range above 21 K, while the single-gap superconductivity is well established as a bulk property not associated to local disorder fluctuations when Tc is decreased down to 11 K.

Categories: cond-mat.supr-con

Observation of the Crossover from Two-Gap to Single-Gap Superconductivity through Specific Heat Measurements in Neutron Irradiated MgB2