Specific Heats of Some Copper-Rich Copper-Nickel Alloys at Liquid Helium Temperatures

Abstract

Helium-temperature heat capacity measurements have been made using samples containing 60, 65, 75, and 90 weight percent of copper in nickel. The results are in approximate agreement with the previous work of Keesom and Kurrelmeyer. The more copper-rich samples have been found to obey a law of the type ${c}_{v}=\ensuremath{\gamma}T+\ensuremath{\beta}{T}^{3}$, but anomalies have been noted in the results of measurements on some of the samples containing 35 and 40 weight percent of nickel. These anomalies are attributed to a magnetic effect. Analysis of the results shows that the usual collective electron interpretation of the intrinsic magnetization of Cu-Ni alloys is oversimplified.