Pressure dependence of the superconducting state parameters of metallic glass superconductor Mg70Zn30

Explicit expressions have been derived for the volume dependence of electron-phonon coupling strength (λ) and the Coulomb pseudopotential (μ^*) considering the variation of Fermi momentum (κ _F) and Debye temperature (θ _D) with volume. Ashcroft’s model pseudopotential and RPA form of dielectric screening have been used for obtaining pressure dependence of transition temperature (T _C) and the logarithmic volume derivative (Φ) of the effective interaction strength (N ₀ V) for metallic glass superconductor Mg₇₀Zn₃₀. It has been observed that T _C of the metallic glass Mg₇₀Zn₃₀ decreases rapidly with increase of pressure and the superconducting phase disappears at about 30% decrease of volume, for which the μ^* curve shows a minimum and an elbow is formed in the Φ graph.     

Superconducting state parameters of CuCZr100-C metallic glasses

The theoretical investigation of the superconducting state parameters (SSP) viz. electron-phonon coupling strength λ, Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, transition temperature T _c, isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N ₀ V of ten Cu _C Zr_100−C metallic glasses have been reported using Ashcroft’s empty core (EMC) model potential. Three local field correction functions proposed by Hartree (H), Taylor (T) and Ichimaru-Utsumi (IU) are used in the current investigation to study the screening influence on the aforesaid properties. It is observed that the electron-phonon coupling strength λ and the transition temperature T _C are quite sensitive to the selection of the local field correction functions, whereas the Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N ₀ V show weak dependences on local field correction functions. The T _c obtained from IU-local field correction function are found an excellent agreement with available theoretical or experimental data. Also, the present results are found in qualitative agreement with other such earlier reported data, which confirms the superconducting phase in metallic glasses.      

Effect of electron-phonon interaction and temperature dependence of resistivity in some heavy fermion systems

Here we have considered the electron-phonon interaction in the Periodic Anderson Model (PAM) to describe the temperature dependence of resistivity in some heavy fermion (HF) systems. Since the resistivity is related to the imaginary part of the electron self energy, the expression of the same is evaluated from electron Green function by the double time temperature dependant Green function technique of the Zubarev type. In order to understand the effect of electron-phonon interaction in these systems, we couple the phonons to both the f-electrons as well as to the electrons of the hybridization band of both conduction and f-electrons. The influence of various model parameters, namely, the position of 4f level E ₀, the electron-phonon coupling strengths f ₁(q) and f ₂(q), the effecting coupling strength g = N(0)γ ₀²/ω ₀ have been studied on the temperature dependence of resistivity in HF systems. The numerical analysis is performed for q = 0 and for finite temperature in the static limit. The analysis of the results gives satisfactorily in comparison to the experimental observations.     

Superconducting state parameters of La<Subscript>100-<Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis></Subscript>Ga<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis></Subscript> binary metallic glasses

The theoretical investigations of the superconducting state parameters (SSP) viz. electron-phonon coupling strength λ, Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, transition temperature T _C , isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N _O V of six binary La_100-C Ga _C (C = 16, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 at. %) metallic glasses have been reported using Ashcroft’s empty core (EMC) model potential for the first time. Five local field correction functions proposed by Hartree (H), Taylor (T), Ichimaru-Utsumi (IU), Farid et al. (F) and Sarkar et al. (S) are used in the present investigation to study the screening influence on the aforesaid properties. It is observed that the electron-phonon coupling strength λ and the transition temperature T _C are quite sensitive to the selection of the local field correction functions, whereas the Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N _O V show weak dependences on the local field correction functions. The T _C obtained from H-local field correction function are found in qualitative agreement with available experimental data and show almost linear nature with the concentration (C) of ‘Ga’ element. A linear T _C equation is proposed by fitting the present outcomes for H-local field correction function, which is in conformity with other results for the experimental data. Also, the present results are found to be in qualitative agreement with other such earlier reported data, which confirms the superconducting phase in the metallic glasses.      

Effect of heavy cation doping on thermal properties of LaMnO3

Effect of heavy cation doping (Ca²⁺ at the A-site) on the thermal properties of perovskite LaMnO₃ has been investigated using the Rigid Ion Model (RIM)). As strong electron-phonon interactions are present in these compounds, the lattice part of the specific heat deserves proper attention. The specific heat of magnetoresistance compound La_0.25Ca_0.75MnO₃ as a function of temperature (10 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K) is reported. Our results on specific heat are in good agreement with the measured values of specific heat at lower temperatures. In addition, the results on the cohesive energy (ϕ), molecular force constant (f), Restrahalen frequency (ν ₀), Debye temperature (Θ _D) and Gruneisen parameter (γ) are also discussed.      

Superconducting state parameters of indium-based binary alloys

Our well-recognized pseudopotential is used to investigate the superconducting state parameters viz: electron-phonon coupling strength λ. Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, transition temperature T _c, isotope effective exponent α and interaction strength N ₀ V for the In_1−x Zn _x and In_1−x Sn _x binary alloys. We have incorporated six different types of local field correction functions, proposed by Hartree, Taylor, Vashistha-Singwi, Ichimaru-Utsumi, Farid et al and Sarkar et al to show the effect of exchange and correlation on the aforesaid properties. Very strong influence of the various exchange and correlation functions is concluded from the present study. The comparison with other such theoretical values is encouraging, which confirms the applicability of our model potential in explaining the superconducting state parameters of binary mixture.     

Spin susceptibility in small Fermi energy systems: effects of nonmagnetic impurities

In small Fermi energy metals, disorder can deeply modify superconducting state properties leading to a strong suppression of the critical temperature T_c. In this paper, we show that also normal state properties can be seriously influenced by disorder when the Fermi energy E _F is sufficiently small. We calculate the normal state spin susceptibility χ for a narrow band electron-phonon coupled metal as a function of the non-magnetic impurity scattering rate . We find that as soon as is comparable to E _F, χ is strongly reduced with respect to its value in the clean limit. The effects of the electron-phonon interaction including the nonadiabatic corrections are discussed. Our results strongly suggest that the recent finding on irradiated MgB₂ samples can be naturally explained in terms of small E _F values associated with the σ-bands of the boron plane, sustaining therefore the hypothesis that MgB₂ is a nonadiabatic metal. Received 31 July 2002 / Received in final form 21 September 2002 Published online 31 December 2002     

Theoretical analysis of the thermal conductivity of high-temperature superconductors

Summary The thermal conductivity of YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ high-T _c superconductor is analysed self-consistently on both normal and superconducting states on the base of the Bardeen-Rickayzen-Tewordt extended theory to take into account the effects of magnetic field and superconducting fluctuations. It is shown that experimental data are in a quantitative agreement with theory even if the number and variation intervals of adjustable parameters are substantially reduced in comparison with previous works. Phonon relaxation rates due to different mechanisms of phonon scattering as well as the parameters of electron-phonon interaction are estimated. It is shown that thermal conductivity in YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ is consistent with the BCS model with intermediate electron-phonon coupling λ=1–3 the phonon-electron and electron-phonon relaxation times near critical temperature are evaluated to be 10⁻¹⁰s and 10⁻¹²s, respectively.     

Criterion for superconductivity in highT c oxidic compounds

A criterion for superconductivity in highT _c oxidic compounds is proposed based on a short range cooperative electron-phonon coupling and the Darwin interaction for Cooper pairing. It is shown that the small polaron stabilization energy (ε _p) should be less than about 0.04 eV and the system should have a metal ion for which Darwin interaction energy is large.     

Impact of eigenvalues on the pseudopotential calculation of superconducting parameters of metals Ga, Cd and In

In the present paper some superconducting (SC) state parameters of metals Ga, Cd and In have been studied through Harrison’s First Principle [HFP] pseudopotential technique using McMillan’s formalism. The impact of choosing two different sets of core energy eigenvalues viz. Herman-Skillman and Clementi (or Experimental) has been studied. It has been observed that the choice of eigenvalues has appreciable impact on the form factor and consequently on the SC state transition parameter viz. electron-phonon coupling strength (λ) and superconducting transition temperature T _c . Hence the choice of suitable eigenvalues is essential for these computations. Reasonable agreement with experimental and theoretical data have been obtained.     

A new optical method for measuring the electron-phonon interaction parameter λ〈Ω2〉 using the spectral dependence of the relaxation rate

The spectral dependence of the electron-phonon relaxation rate γ_e−ph(ℏω) in metals is studied in pump-supercontinuum-probe (PSCP) experiments with femtosecond time resolution. Investigation of this spectral dependence, which exhibits a substantial slowing of the relaxation rate γ_e−ph(ℏω) near the Fermi level E _F , using the parametrization γ_e−ph(ℏω)∝λ〈Ω²〉 (ℏω−E _F )² makes it possible to determine directly the electron-phonon interaction parameter λ〈Ω²〉. The parameter λ〈Ω²〉 for YBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ is analyzed using this method. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 5, 329–332 (10 September 1999)     

Superconducting state parameters of binary metallic glasses

Ashcroft’s empty core (EMC) model potential is used to study the superconducting state parameters (SSPs) viz. electron-phonon coupling strength λ, Coulomb pseudopotential μ*, transition temperature T _C , isotope effect exponent αand effective interaction strength N _O V of some binary metallic glasses based on the superconducting (S), conditional superconducting (S’) and non-superconducting (NS) elements of the periodic table. Five local field correction functions proposed by Hartree (H), Taylor (T), Ichimaru-Utsumi (IU), Farid et al. (F) and Sarkar et al. (S) are used for the first time with EMC potential in the present investigation to study the screening influence on the aforesaid properties. The T _C obtained from the H-local field correction function are in excellent agreement with available theoretical or experimental data. In the present computation, the use of the pseudo-alloy-atom model (PAA) was proposed and found successful. Present work results are in qualitative agreement with such earlier reported experimental values which confirm the superconducting phase in all metallic glasses. A strong dependency of the SSPs of the metallic glasses on the valence ‘Z’ is identified.      

Thermopower of Al1−x Six solid solutions in vicinity of lattice instability

The thermopower coefficient as a function of temperature, S(T), has been measured in nonequilibrium superconductors, such as Al_1−x Six substitutional solid solutions and Al-Si alloys on various decay stages. When aluminum is substituted with silicon, the contribution to the thermopower due to phonon-drag effects, which are dominant in pure aluminum at low temperatures, is suppressed, and low-temperature anomalies in S(T) detected in compositions near lattice instability limit are determined by the diffusion component of the thermopower. The low-temperature anomalies in the thermopower and the notable increase in the coefficient in front of the linear term in S(T) are attributed to effects of thermopower renormalization due to the electron-phonon interaction enhancement with “soft modes” in the face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice of Al_1−x Six solid solutions. The nature of these anomalies in S(T) is analyzed in terms of the Kaiser and Reizer-Sergeev models. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 339–351 (January 1998)     

Bogoliubov compensation principle in the electro-weak interaction: value of the gauge constant,muon g-2 anomaly,predictions for Tevatron and LHC

We apply the Bogoliubov compensation principle to the gauge electro-weak interaction to demonstrate the spontaneous generation of an anomalous three-boson gauge invariant effective interaction. The non-trivial solution of the compensation equations uniquely defines the values of the parameters of the theory and the form factor of the anomalous interaction. The contribution of this interaction to the running EW coupling, α _ew(p ²), gives its observable value α _ew(M _W ²)=0.0374, in satisfactory agreement to the experiment. The anomalous three-boson interaction gives a natural explanation of the well-known discrepancy in the muon g−2. The implications for EW studies at Tevatron and LHC are briefly discussed.     

Effect of interband interaction on isotope effect exponent of MgB2 superconductors

The exact formula of T_c’s equation and the isotope effect exponent of two-band s-wave superconductors in the weak-coupling limit are derived by considering the influence of interband interaction. In each band, our model consists of two pairing interactions: the electron-phonon interaction and non-electron-phonon interaction. We find that the isotope effect exponent of MgB₂, α = 0.3 with T_c ≈ 40 K can be found in the weak coupling regime and interband interaction of electron-phonon shows more effect on the isotope effect exponent than on the interband interaction of non-phonon.     

Study of superconducting state parameters of amorphous metals by a pseudopotential theory

The theoretical computation of the superconducting state parameters (SSP) viz; electron-phonon coupling strength λ, Coulomb pseudopotential μ ^*, transition temperature T _c , isotope effect exponent α and effective interaction strength N _O V of some monovalent (Cu and Au), divalent (Ca, Sr, Ba, αHg, βHg and Ra) and polyvalent (Lu, Rh, Sc, Y, La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Ac, Th, Hf, Ru, Os, Ir, V, Ta, Pa, Cr, Mo, U, Re, Np and Pu) amorphous metals based on the different groups of the periodic table have been carried out for the first time using the well known Ashcroft’s empty core (EMC) model pseudopotential. Herein, we have employed five different types of local field correction functions proposed by Hartree (H), Taylor (T), Ichimaru-Utsumi (IU), Farid et al. (F) and Sarkar et al. (S) to study the exchange and correlation effects on the present investigations. A very strong influence of all the exchange and correlation functions have been observed in the present study. Our results are in fair agreement with documented theoretical as well as experimental data. A strong dependency of the SSP of amorphous metals on the valency Z was found.      

Theoretical analysis of tunneling experiments in the MgB<Subscript>2</Subscript> system

A detailed theoretical analysis of the experimental data obtained earlier in the studies of the tunneling spectra in the MgB₂ two-band superconducting system has been performed. It is shown that most these data are well described in the generalized two-band Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory with the constants of the intraband electron-phonon interaction that reasonably coincide with the ab initio calculation results. It is shown that the existence of specific collective excitation in this system induced by oscillations of the relative phase of two superconducting condensates (the Leggett mode) indicates the overestimation of the constants of the interband electron-phonon interaction in the ab initio calculations. The dependences of the superconducting gaps and the Leggett mode frequency on the temperature and the disorder degree in the Mg_{1 − x} Al _x B₂ system have been thoroughly studied.     

Lattice mechanical properties of noble and transition metals

A model pseudopotential depending on an effective core radius but otherwise parameter free is used to study the interatomic interactions, phonon dispersion curves (inq and r-space analysis), phonon density of states, mode Grüneisen parameters, dynamical elastic constants (C ₁₁,C ₁₂ andC ₄₄), bulk modulus (B), shear modulus (C′), deviation from Cauchy relation (C ₁₂–C ₄₄), Poisson’s ratio (σ), Young’s modulus (Y), behavior of phonon frequencies in the elastic limit independent of the direction (Y ₁), limiting value in the [110] direction (Y ₂), degree of elastic anisotropy (A), maximum frequencyω _max, mean frequency 〈ω〉, 〈ω ²〉^1/2=(〈ω〉/〈ω ⁻¹〉)^1/2, fundamental frequency 〈ω ²〉, and propagation velocities of the elastic constants in Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pd, and Pt. The contribution of s-like electrons is calculated in the second-order perturbation theory for the model potential while that of d-like electrons is taken into account by introducing repulsive short-range Born-Mayer like term. Very recently proposed screening function due to Sarkar et al. has been used to obtain the screened form factor. The theoretical results are compared with experimental findings wherever possible. A good agreement between theoretical investigations and experimental findings has proved the ability of our model potential for predicting a large number of physical properties of transition metals.     

Nonlinear dynamics of a two-dimensional lattice

The dynamics of the nonlinear excitations in a two-dimensional (2D) φ⁴-diatomic lattice, with nonlinear on-site electron-phonon coupling at the polarizable ion site has been presented, without considering the self consistent phonon approximation. One of the major results obtained from our calculations is in the understanding of continuous structural phase transition, where we have obtained the minimum in soft mode frequency at a soft mode temperatureT _s (>T _c), not at critical temperatureT _c. This occurs due to the anisotropy of such 2D systems.     

Femtosecond coherent spectroscopy of four-wave mixing and photon echoes in a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure at room temperature

The results from experiments employing coherent femtosecond spectroscopy in a layer of two-dimensional electron gas at the boundary of the GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction at room temperature are presented. The decay curves of primary femtosecond photon echo are obtained. The decoherence time in two-dimensional electron gas depends strongly on the power of the exciting pulse and varies from 36 to 54 fs. The dephasing time is studied for the first time as a function of the power of exciting pulses at room temperature. It is established that this dependence obeys the law T ₂ ∼ N ^−0.22, which differs from the typical law T ₂ ∼ N ⁻¹ for unscreened electron-electron interaction in semiconductor crystals. Analysis shows that electron-phonon interaction plays an important part along with electron-electron interaction. The induced spin gratings in the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure are studied with an eye to their possible application in spintronics.