Heat Capacity of Palladium and Dilute Palladium: Iron Alloys from 1.4 to 100°K

Abstract

Heat-capacity measurements have been made on pure palladium and a series of dilute palladium-iron alloys over the temperature range 1.4 to 100\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. All alloys exhibit a ferromagnetic specific heat anomaly, the entropy of which is proportional to iron concentration. This entropy corresponds to a mean spin of 1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3 per iron atom. The disagreement between the latter figure and the value obtained from the saturation moment of more concentrated alloys is discussed. For the most concentrated alloy a ${T}^{\frac{3}{2}}$ spin-wave term is observed, the magnitude of which is in approximate agreement with theory. The Debye $\ensuremath{\theta}$ for pure palladium appears to have an anomalous temperature dependence.