Electron-phonon interactions and related physical properties of metals from linear-response theory

Abstract

Spectral distribution functions of electron-phonon interaction ${\mathrm{\alpha }}^2$F(ω) obtained by ab initio linear-response calculations are used to describe various superconducting and transport properties in a number of elemental metals such as Al, Cu, Mo, Nb, Pb, Pd, Ta, and V. Their lattice dynamics and self-consistently screened electron-phonon coupling are evaluated within local density functional theory and using a linear-muffin-tin-orbital basis set. We compare our theoretical ${\mathrm{\alpha }}^2$F(ω) with those deduced from the tunneling measurements and find a close agreement between them. Temperature-dependent electrical and thermal resistivities as well as transport constants ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{tr}}$ also agree well with the experimental data. The values of ${\lambda }_{\mathrm{tr}}$ are close to the electron-phonon coupling parameter λ. For the latter a very good agreement with specific-heat measurements was found without any paramagnon contribution, except in Pd. We conclude that our method provides the description of electron-phonon interactions in tested materials with an accuracy of 10%. © 1996 The American Physical Society.