Electrical resistivity and absolute thermoelectric power of liquid silver-bismuth alloys

Abstract

The electrical resistivity and absolute thermoelectric power of the liquid Ag 1 − x Bi x system has been measured over the whole composition range. The resistivity rapidly reaches a maximum for silver rich alloys. The thermoelectric power decreases from the high positive value of silver to a minimum at x = 0.10, It then increases to a maximum at x = 0.40 before a final decrease to the value of pure bismuth. The experimental results are interpreted and discussed in term of Faber-Ziman formula using the t-matrix formalism. The concentration and energy dependence of the phase shifts have been taken into account for a complete resistivity and thermopower calculation. In the past, muffin-tin potential calculations for pure metals have been done with a flexibility given by a more or less arbitrary choice of parameters like the effective mass m * or the energy band bottom E B . In the present work no adjustable parameters have been used; hence some results are not so good as earlier ones. Particularly, the resistivity of the bismuth rich side of the phase diagram is not well represented