Magnetic field - temperature phase diagram of quasi-two-dimensional organic superconductor lambda-(BETS)₂ GaCl₄ studied via thermal conductivity

The thermal conductivity kappa of the quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) organic superconductor lambda-(BETS)_2 GaCl_4 was studied in the magnetic field H applied parallel to the Q2D plane. The phase diagram determined from this bulk measurement shows notable dependence on the sample quality. In dirty samples the upper critical field H_{c2} is consistent with the Pauli paramagnetic limiting, and a sharp change is observed in kappa(H) at H_{c2 parallel}. In contrast in clean samples H_{c2}(T) shows no saturation towards low temperatures and the feature in kappa(H) is replaced by two slope changes reminiscent of second-order transitions. The peculiarity was observed below ~ 0.33T_c and disappeared on field inclination to the plane when the orbital suppression of superconductivity became dominant. This behavior is consistent with the formation of a superconducting state with spatially modulated order parameter in clean samples.