ELECTRON-PHONON COUPLING AND RELATED PROPERTIES OF C16-STRUCTURED ZR2NI INTERMETALLICS

The self-consistent potential parameters obtained from LDA-based LMTO electronic structure calculations and phonon dispersion relations obta ined from lattice dynamical model calculations have been used to estim ate the electron-phonon coupling constant (lambda) for Zr2Ni using the McMillan-Hopfield formula within the rigid-muffin-tin approximation. The theoretically calculated heat capacity parameters compare well wit h those fitted to the experimental data. The superconducting transitio n temperature T-c deviates from the experimental value, but is within the expectations of the strong-coupling theory.