Brillouin zone effects on the critical temperature of superconductors and some related normal metal properties

A Fermi surface passing through a set of Bragg planes gives rise to variations of several normal metal properties, e.g. the electronic density of states N(0), the magnetic susceptibility, the Seebeck coefficient, the Debye temperature and the electron-phonon interaction strength V_ph, and consequently also to variation of the critical temperature for superconductivity, T_c.This behaviour is analysed on the basis of a nearly free electron model and a comparison is made with experimental results in various alloy systems. These systems include alloys of non-transition metals and pseudo-binary alloyed compounds with Cu₃Au- and CuAl₂-type structure.The observed variations of normal metal properties are in reasonable agreement with the theoretical estimates. The variations in T_c indicate that enhancements not only of N(0) but probably also of V_ph occur near Bragg planes.