We show that two-band superconductors harbor hidden criticality deep in the superconducting state, stemming from the critical temperature of the weaker band taken as an independent system. For sufficiently small interband coupling $\gamma$ the coherence length of the weaker band exhibits a remarkable deviation from the conventional monotonic increase with temperature, namely, a pronounced peak close to the hidden critical point. The magnitude of the peak scales as $\propto {\gamma }^{-\mu }$, with the Landau critical exponent $\mu =\frac{1}{3}$, the same as found for the mean-field critical behavior with respect to the source field in ferromagnets and ferroelectrics. Here reported hidden criticality of multiband superconductors can be experimentally observed by, e.g., imaging of the variations of the vortex core in a broader temperature range. Similar effects are expected for the superconducting multilayers.

• Received 25 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.207002