Electronic Properties of Liquid Cu–Te, Ag–Te, Au–Te and Pd–Te Binary Alloys

Liquid Ag–Te and Cu–Te systems exhibited sharp minima in the conductivity and the susceptibility at the stoichiometric composition M 2 Te. Furthermore, liquid Cu–Te system exhibited a weak maximum in the conductivity near 15 at%Cu concentration. For liquid Au–Te system, the concentration dependence of conductivity increases gradually with increasing Au concentration and that of susceptibility has a smooth variation with Au concentration. For liquid Pd–Te system, that of conductivity exhibited a rapid increase from Te-side to Pd-side. On the basis of the Mott model, the density of states at the Fermi level E F is estimated from these experimental results of the conductivity and susceptibility. The difference in their concentration dependence among four liquid systems is characterized by the amount of the sp-d hybridization and the position of the energy level of d-state E d relative to E F .