Specific Heat and Magnetic Relaxation Analysis of ${\rm MgB}_{2}$ Bulk Samples With and Without Additives

The effects of SiC and Carbon doping on the superconducting properties of MgB
₂
polycrystalline samples have been analysed by means of specific heat and magnetic relaxation measurements. It is known that the addition of nanometric powders of SiC and C leads to the enhancement of B
_irr
and J
_c
. However, the underlying physical mechanism is not completely understood. Magnetic relaxation measurements did not show detectable effects of both the additions on the pinning properties of MgB
₂
. It follows that doping acts mainly introducing disorder into the superconductor and thus raising B
_c2
. In the case of MgB
_1.9
C
_0.1
, specific heat measurements show that the C substitution on the B sites modifies the low temperature shoulder related to the second gap. This effect is not visible in the sample doped with SiC. From the distribution of T
_c
determined from the deconvolution of the calorimetric data, we argue that SiC leads to an inhomogeneous distribution of C.