Hybridization and bonding in transition metal compound superconductors: X-ray photoemission from crystalline and amorphous Nb3Ge.

An XPS (or ESCA) study of the high T_c crystalline and the low T_c amorphous phases of Nb₃Ge indicates a change of the Nb-Ge bonding from covalent to metallic upon the amorphous to crystalline transition. The high T_c superconductivity of Nb₃Ge does not appear to stem only from an unusually high electronic density of states at the Fermi level but rather from another property such as a resonant enhancement of the electron-phonon coupling resulting from cation-anion hybridization at E_F.