SUPERCONDUCTIVITY OF TERNARY RARE-EARTH COMPOUNDS .3. ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTAL-DATA ON THE RHODIUM BORIDE SYSTEM

In earlier papers by the same authors a theory which discussed the effects of ferromagnetic spin fluctuations on superconductivity was presented. In this paper it is shown that experimental measurements of the phase diagrams and upper critical fields of several pseudo-ternary rare-earth rhodium boride compounds can be explained using the theory. The rare-earth atoms behave magnetically like free 3+ ions, and couple weakly to the conduction electrons with a strength that is nearly independent of their atomic number. The rare-earth compounds are typically quite dirty and have very short spin-orbit scattering times. It is predicted that the jump in specific heat in most of these compounds will exceed the BCS value. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.