LOW TEMPERATURE RESISTIVITY OF TRANSITION ELEMENTS: VANADIUM, NIOBIUM, AND HAFNIUM

Abstract

Measurements of the thermal conductivity from 2° to 90 ° K. and electrical conductivity from 2° to 300 ° K. are reported for vanadium, niobium, and hafnium. Although the vanadium and hafnium are not as pure as we might wish, measurements on these metals and on niobium allow a tabulation of the "ideal" electrical resistivity clue to thermal scattering for these elements from 300 ° K. down to about 20 ° K. Ice-point values of the "ideal" electrical resistivity are 18.3 μΩ-cm. for vanadium, 13.5 μΩ-cm. for niobium, and 29.4 μΩ-cm. for hafnium. Values for the "ideal" thermal resistivity of vanadium and niobium are deduced from the experimental results although for vanadium and more particularly for hafnium, higher purity specimens are required before a very reliable study of "ideal" thermal resistivity can be made. For the highly ductile pure niobium, the superconducting transition temperature, as determined from electrical resistance, appears to be close to 9.2 ° K.