Superconductivity, Susceptibility, and Specific Heat in the Noble Transition Elements and Alloys. I. Experimental Results

Abstract

We present experimental results of a study of superconductivity and magnetic susceptibility in face-centered-cubic alloys of Ir with Ru, Rh, Pd, Re, Os, and Pt, mostly on the Ir-rich side. The results show that the filling up of the $d$ band first depresses the superconducting transition temperature and then causes the susceptibility to increase rapidly. There is a correlation between these two experimental parameters in that metals with large (exchange enhanced) susceptibilities are not superconducting above our experimental limit (0.015\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K). We predict that Pd will not superconduct even at 0\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K and that superconductivity in Rh and Pt will occur far below ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K, if at all.