Influence of carbon doping on the reversible magnetization of MgB2 single crystals

The reversible magnetization of Mg(B1−xCx)2 single crystals with varying carbon content (x=0–0.095) was measured by SQUID magnetometry. It was found to be strongly influenced by the two-band character of this material. At low magnetic fields charge carriers of both bands contribute to superconductivity and to diamagnetism. At high fields the π-band is suppressed and the σ-band mainly determines the magnetization. This allows us to extract information on both bands by analyzing the reversible magnetization in terms of two band Ginzburg–Landau (GL) theory. The “intrinsic” magnetic penetration increases in both bands with increasing carbon content, but the σ-band remains crucial for the upper critical field. Changes in the field dependence of the resulting “effective” penetration depth by carbon doping are discussed.