Abstract:
In small Fermi energy metals, disorder can deeply modify superconducting state properties leading to a strong suppression of the critical temperature Tc. In this paper, we show that also normal state properties can be seriously influenced by disorder when the Fermi energy E F is sufficiently small. We calculate the normal state spin susceptibility χ for a narrow band electron-phonon coupled metal as a function of the non-magnetic impurity scattering rate . We find that as soon as is comparable to E F, χ is strongly reduced with respect to its value in the clean limit. The effects of the electron-phonon interaction including the nonadiabatic corrections are discussed. Our results strongly suggest that the recent finding on irradiated MgB2 samples can be naturally explained in terms of small E F values associated with the σ-bands of the boron plane, sustaining therefore the hypothesis that MgB2 is a nonadiabatic metal.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received 31 July 2002 / Received in final form 21 September 2002 Published online 31 December 2002
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cappelluti, E., Grimaldi, C. & Pietronero, L. Spin susceptibility in small Fermi energy systems: effects of nonmagnetic impurities. Eur. Phys. J. B 30, 511–517 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00408-2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00408-2