Calculated electrical conductivity and thermopower of silver-palladium alloys

The electronic structures of ${\mathrm{Ag}}_x{\mathrm{Pd}}_{1-x}$ alloys were calculated by using a charge self-consistent version of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker coherent-potential approximation. The results of these calculations were then used to calculate the low-temperature electrical resistivity and the diffusion thermopower of the alloys. Excellent agreement with experiment was obtained for the magnitude and composition variation of the resistivity and the thermopower. The calculation used no adjustable parameters. The only experimental inputs were the atomic numbers of silver and palladium and the alloy lattice spacings.