Phonon softeting and superconductivity in tellurium under pressure
Abstract
The phonon dispersion and the electron-phonon interaction for the β-Po and the bcc high pressure phases of tellurium have been computed (F. Mauri, O. Zakharov, S. de Gironcoli, S. G. Louie, and M. L. Cohen, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 1151 (1996)) using density-functional perturbation theory and the local density approximation. The results of the calculation reproduce and explain the experimentally observed pressure dependence of the superconducting critical temperature (T_c) and confirm the connection between the jump in Tc and the structural phase transition. In particular, the pressure dependence of Tc is shown to be primarily determined by the pressure dependence of the phonon frequencies. Moreover, the phonon contribution to the free energy is found to be responsible for the difference in the structural transition pressure observed in low and room temperature experiments.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 1997
- Bibcode:
- 1997APS..MAR.I1002M