Low‐Temperature Electrical Resistivity of Pd and Pd–Ni Alloys

Abstract

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.