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

Abstract

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.