Theory of some physical properties and competing processes in tight-binding bands. II. Finite temperature properties and disordered alloys

Abstract

For pt.I see ibid., vol.10, p.2609 (1980). In a series of metals many physical quantities oscillate in sign as a function of the filling of the bands. A power-counting method to determine the number of such sign changes has been developed previously. This is extended here to disordered alloys and non-zero temperatures. The minimum number of sign changes is independent of disorder and temperature, and is only weakly affected by changes in the one-electron Hamiltonian along the series. The theory shows that the Friedel-RKKY oscillations in polarisation around an impurity, although damped, persist in disordered alloys and at all temperatures.