Superconductivity in the Palladium-Hydrogen System

Abstract

Band theory and phonon measurements are used to calculate the electron-phonon coupling constant $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ for Pd and PdD. The results indicate that superconductivity is absent in Pd metal because of the large value of the Coulomb pseudopotential ${\ensuremath{\mu}}^{*}$, and that superconductivity occurs in PdD primarily because of coupling with the optic phonons. These results are consistent with superconducting transition-temperature measurements for these systems.