Electronic transport properties of intermediately coupled superconductors: PdTe2 and Cu0.04PdTe2

• Published in: Europhysics letters Vol. 121; no. 1; pp. 17001 - 17006
• Main Authors: Hooda, M. K., Yadav, C. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Les Ulis EDP Sciences, IOP Publishing and Società Italiana di Fisica 01-01-2018; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: 72.15.Eb; 74.25.F; Electrical resistivity; Electron transport; Electronic structure; Fermi liquids; First principles; Heat transfer; Parameter estimation; Scattering; Seebeck effect; Superconductors; Temperature dependence; Thermal conductivity; Transport properties
• ISSN: 0295-5075; 1286-4854
• DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/121/17001

We have investigated the electrical resistivity (1.8-480 K), Seebeck coefficient (2.5-300 K) and thermal conductivity (2.5-300 K) of PdTe2 and 4% Cu intercalated PdTe2 compounds. The electrical resistivity for the compounds shows a Bloch-Gruneisen-type linear temperature (T) dependence for , and Fermi liquid behavior for . Seebeck coefficient data exhibit a strong competition between Normal (N) and Umklapp (U) scattering processes at low T. The low-T, thermal conductivity of the compounds is strongly dominated by the electronic contribution, and exhibits a rare linear T-dependence below 10 K. However, high-T, shows the usual -dependence, dominated by the U-scattering process. The electron-phonon coupling parameters, estimated from the low-T, specific-heat data and first-principle electronic structure calculations suggest that PdTe2 and Cu0.04PdTe2 are intermediately coupled superconductors.