Ni-Zr amorphous alloys: Low temperature specific heat and superconductivity

The specific heat (C_p) of the amorphous alloys Ni_100-xZr_x for x = 75, 65, 55 and 35 was measured from 0.8K to 40K and the composition trends of the transition temperature T_c, the enhanced density of states at the Fermi level N_γ(_F) and the Debye temperatures θ_D(0), θ_D(T) established. For the three superconducting compositions (x=75, 65, 55) N_γ(E_F increases rapidly with increasing [Zr] in agreement with the trend in amorphous Cu-Zr alloys. However, for the Zr-Ni alloys the bare density of states $\text{N}{}_0\text{(E}{}_{\mathrm{F}}\text{) =}\text{N}{}_{\mathrm{\gamma }}\text{(E}{}_{\mathrm{F}}\text{)}\text{(1 + λ}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{)}$ increases strongly with [Zr] in contrast to the Zr-Cu alloys where it is reported to be almost constant. We conclude that for the Ni-Zr alloys the electron-ion matrix element 2> decreases with increasing [Zr]. Other results are related to recent photoemission studies of these alloys.