Relation Between Local Order and Interference Effects in Electrical Resistivity for Metallic Alloys

Abstract

A relation is pointed out between the interaction of a pair of impurity atoms in a metal and the isotropic part of the interference term in their residual resistivity. The relation is established for weak, far apart, and magnetic or nonmagnetic scatterers in a free-electron gas. It should hold approximately down to the nearest-neighbor distance for alloys with normal or rare-earth components. In all cases, both effects are described by oscillating functions of the distance between the two scatterers, with the same phase. An increase of residual resistivity with local order results.