Specific Heat and Superconductivity of Binary Alloys Containing V, Nb, and Ta

The electronic specific heat coefficient, γ, the Debye temperature, θD, and the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, have been measured for binary b.c.c. alloys of V, Nb, and Ta. These results have been used to investigate the effects of compositional changes on parameters used in the theory of superconductivity to describe the transition temperature. It has been shown that changes in transition temperature with changes in composition cannot be explained simply on the basis of an alteration of the density of states except in the case of binary Nb‐Ta alloys. It is concluded that, for V‐Nb and V‐Ta alloys, changes in the interaction responsible for superconductivity also govern changes in the transition temperature.