Electronic transport properties of liquid zinc and zinc–germanium alloys: Theory versus experiment

The electrical resistivity and the absolute thermoelectric power of liquid zinc, germanium, and zinc–germanium alloys have been measured as a function of temperature by 10 at.% steps between pure zinc and 70 at.% of germanium. The electronic transport properties of the pure liquid metals and alloys are evaluated in the framework of the extended Faber–Ziman theory using a single-site t-matrix. Different muffin-tin potentials are constructed using Hartree Fock and density functional theory (LDA and GGA), to interpret the electron–ion interaction. This formalism explains the anomalous temperature dependence of both the resistivity and the positive absolute thermoelectric power (ATP) of liquid zinc. Concerning the experimental first peak asymmetry of germanium and zinc, the static structure factors cannot be reproduced with hard spheres. They are better described for both pure metals and alloys by a square well pair potential.