Superconductivity in tight-binding approximation

An interpretation of Barisic's relation for transition elements between the d-electron contribution to the cohesive energy and the local atomic parameter eta is presented. This relation is extended to a lattice with more than one atom per unit cell in the tight- binding approximation of rigid ions. It is conjectured that Barisic's relation is correct to first order approximation for transition metal alloys, provided the phonon induced d-d coupling is the dominant mechanism for superconductivity. (auth

Trend of superconductivity in amorphous superconducting transition metals and their alloys

A plausible interpretation for the trend of superconducting transition temperature T/sub c/ in amorphous transition metal TM alloys is presented from a chemical point of view. It is shown that the T/sub c/ behavior is not a reflection of the dependence of the atomic parameter eta on the number of electrons per atom, but rather due to two other effects. One is the changes in the density of states due to the mixing of antibonding and bonding states in the bcc amorphous metals. The other is an increase in the number of valence d electrons participating in the phonon-induced d-d coupling towards the mid series. (auth

Glass transition in metallic glasses: A microscopic model of topological fluctuations in the bonding network

Understanding of the structure and dynamics of liquids and glasses at an atomistic level lags well behind that of crystalline materials, even though they are important in many fields. Metallic liquids and glasses provide an opportunity to make significant advances because of its relative simplicity. We propose a microscopic model based on the concept of topological fluctuations in the bonding network. The predicted glass transition temperature, Tg, shows excellent agreement with experimental observations in metallic glasses. To our knowledge this is the first model to predict the glass transition temperature quantitatively from measurable macroscopic variables

Glass transition in metallic glasses: A microscopic model of topological fluctuations in the bonding network

Understanding of the structure and dynamics of liquids and glasses at an atomistic level lags well behind that of crystalline materials, even though they are important in many fields. Metallic liquids and glasses provide an opportunity to make significant advances because of its relative simplicity. We propose a microscopic model based on the concept of topological fluctuations in the bonding network. The predicted glass transition temperature, Tg, shows excellent agreement with experimental observations in metallic glasses. To our knowledge this is the first model to predict the glass transition temperature quantitatively from measurable macroscopic variables

NMR study of the electronic properties and crystal structure of the semiconducting compound Al2Ru

The nontetrahedral semiconductor Al2Ru has been studied by Al27 nuclear magnetic resonance from room temperature to 1200 K. An anomalously large Al27 chemical shift of 313 ppm was observed. The Al27 nuclear-spin-lattice relaxation rate is extremely slow at room temperature and significantly increases above 500 K. Analysis of these data is consistent with a very low residual density of states at the Fermi level and a narrow band gap. In addition, high-resolution magic-angle-spinning Al27 spectra show that there are two similar but distinguishable aluminum sites, indicating that the actual crystal structure differs slightly from the one determined by x-ray diffraction

Sharp feature in the pseudogap of quasicrystals detected by NMR

The 27Al and 63Cu spin-lattice relaxation rates were found to contain a large T2 term over a wide temperature range below 400 K in several thermodynamically stable quasicrystalline alloys, including i-AlCuRu, i-AlPdRe, i-AlCuFe, and the crystalline approximant phase a-AlMnSi. The relaxation mechanism is proven to be electronic in origin. Such nonlinear temperature dependence is shown to be a clear signature of sharp features in the density of states at the Fermi level. The estimated width of this sharp feature is on the order of 20 meV

Temperature-dependent NMR features of the Al65Cu20Ru15 icosahedral alloy

The Al65Cu20Ru15 icosahedral alloy was studied by Al27 nuclear magnetic resonance from 150 to 1110 K. The Knight shift of the unresolved resonance line was observed to significantly increase above 500 K. This uncommon temperature dependence of the Knight shift is interpreted in terms of the presence of a pseudogap at the Fermi level. The spin-lattice relaxation rate deviates from the linear temperature dependence of Korringa relaxation below 500 K, and above 500 K it is dominated by a thermally activated process with a small activation energy of 0.48 eV. This energy is distinctly different from the activation energy observed in simple metallic alloys

The Eliashberg Function of Amorphous Metals

A connection is proposed between the anomalous thermal transport properties of amorphous solids and the low-frequency behavior of the Eliashberg function. By means of a model calculation we show that the size and frequency dependence of the phonon mean-free-path that has been extracted from measurements of the thermal conductivity in amorphous solids leads to a sizeable linear region in the Eliashberg function at small frequencies. Quantitative comparison with recent experiments gives very good agreement.Comment: 4pp., REVTeX, 1 uuencoded ps fig. Original posting had a corrupted raw ps fig appended. Published as PRB 51, 689 (1995

Analytical results on quantum interference and magnetoconductance for strongly localized electrons in a magnetic field: Exact summation of forward-scattering paths

We study quantum interference effects on the transition strength for strongly localized electrons hopping on 2D square and 3D cubic lattices in the presence of a magnetic field B. These effects arise from the interference between phase factors associated with different electron paths connecting two distinct sites. For electrons confined on a square lattice, with and without disorder, we obtain closed-form expressions for the tunneling probability, which determines the conductivity, between two arbitrary sites by exactly summing the corresponding phase factors of all forward-scattering paths connecting them. An analytic field-dependent expression, valid in any dimension, for the magnetoconductance (MC) is derived. A positive MC is clearly observed when turning on the magnetic field. In 2D, when the strength of B reaches a certain value, which is inversely proportional to twice the hopping length, the MC is increased by a factor of two compared to that at zero field. We also investigate transport on the much less-studied and experimentally important 3D cubic lattice case, where it is shown how the interference patterns and the small-field behavior of the MC vary according to the orientation of B. The effect on the low-flux MC due to the randomness of the angles between the hopping direction and the orientation of B is also examined analytically.Comment: 24 pages, RevTeX, 8 figures include