LOW-TEMPERATURE ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY OF PD AND PD-NI ALLOYS

Persistent spin fluctuations in strongly paramagnetic metals like Pd have been shown to give rise to electron-mass renormalization and concomitant enhancement of the electronic specific-heat coefficient. In addition, recent calculations of s-electron-spin-fluctuation interactions predict a term in the low-temperature electrical resistivity which should vary as A T2, where A is predicted to be proportional to the square of the paramagnetic spin-susceptibility enhancement. To test this theory, electrical-resistivity measurements were performed from 2°to 35°K on samples of Pd containing 0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.66 at.%Ni. All of the samples are paramagnetic with susceptibilities which increase rapidly with the Ni content. A T2 dependence in the low-temperature electrical resistivity of all samples was observed; A was found to be 26, 114, 241, and 513×10-6 μΩ·cm/deg2 for the four samples, respectively. However, in contrast to theoretical predictions, A was observed to vary less rapidly than as the square of the magnetic susceptibility. © 1968 The American Institute of Physics.