Two OPW calculations of electronic transport properties of copper below 20 K

Abstract

The results of numerical calculations of the electrical and thermal lattice resistivity of copper at temperatures (T) below 20 K are presented. We have calculated the matrix element for electron–phonon scattering using two OPW electronic states and the Born – von Karman method of determining the phonon frequencies and eigenvectors. We have used the eight-cone model of the Fermi surface in which necks intersecting the Brillouin zone and the spherical belly regions are both present.The lattice electrical resistivity is calculated for two limiting cases. In the first case the resistivity is that expected when no impurities are present in the metal. In the second case the impurity resistivity is taken to dominate the lattice resistivity. We show that the T3 behaviour of lattice resistivity recently observed experimentally below 10 K can be understood as occurring when the temperature is lowered and the total resistivity moves from the lattice dominated to impurity dominated case.The results of a preliminary calculation, in which a more exact Fermi surface and 27 APW electronic states were used, are also described.