Electronic transport properties of liquid InSn20 alloy

Abstract

In this article, temperature dependences of the electrical conductivity σ and the absolute thermoelectric power S of InSn20 wt% melt were investigated. Abnormal phenomena were observed on both σ–T and S–T curves within certain temperature range, suggesting a temperature-induced liquid structural change occurred in the melt. Combined with the data of the mean neighbor distance r ₁ obtained by the prior X-ray diffraction, according to Faber–Ziman theory, the temperature functioning patterns of the density of states N(E_F ) and its gradient value dN(E_F )/dE were deduced. The results reflect that the electronic structure of the melt at Fermi level also changes during the transition.

Keywords:

• electrical conductivity
• thermoelectric power
• liquid InSn20
• structural transition
• density of state

Acknowledgement

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant Nos 50371024 and 50571033, by the key project of Chinese Ministry of Education No. 104106.