Superconducting fluctuations in specific heat in a magnetic field: dimensional crossover

Abstract
The fluctuation specific heat of layered superconductors in zero and finite magnetic fields and above the transition temperature is studied in the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) scheme. The dimensional crossover behavior is explored. Estimates and consequences for experiments are presented for YBa2Cu3O7δ. The effect of including the quartic order-parameter term in the GL free energy is investigated for the layered case.