Direct Calculation of Electronic Properties of Metals from Neutron Scattering Data

Abstract

The cross section for the scattering of conduction electrons in a metal by the lattice oscillations is written in terms of the observed slow-neutron inelastic-scattering cross section. This enables one to include all multiphonon processes, Debye-Waller factors, and umklapp processes in the electron-lattice interaction without having to use a phonon description of the lattice oscillations. Expressions which involve only the effective electron-lattice matrix elements and the observed neutron-scattering data are given for the electron self energy, phonon-induced effective mass, electrical and thermal conductivities, and viscosity.