Coulomb Interaction and Disorder at <span class="aps-inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mi>q</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>2</mn><mn></mn><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>k</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>F</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></math></span>: A Novel Instability of the Fermi Sea and Implications for Amorphous Alloys

Johann Kroha; Andrea Huck; Thilo Kopp

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4278

Coulomb Interaction and Disorder at $q = 2 k_{F}$ : A Novel Instability of the Fermi Sea and Implications for Amorphous Alloys

Johann Kroha, Andrea Huck, and Thilo Kopp

Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4278 – Published 4 December 1995

Abstract

We investigate the influence of interference between Coulomb interaction and impurity scattering on the static electronic response $χ (0, q)$ in disordered metals to leading order in the effective Coulomb interaction. When the transport relaxation time is much shorter than the quasiparticle lifetime, $χ (0, q)$ exhibits a power-law divergence at the Fermi surface ( $q = 2 k_{F}$ ), signaling an instability towards charge density oscillations. It causes a phase shift of the Friedel oscillations as well as an enhancement of their amplitude. Our results are consistent with experiments and may be relevant for understanding the stability of the amorphous state of certain alloys against crystallization.

Received 23 November 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4278

Authors & Affiliations

Johann Kroha^1,*, Andrea Huck^2,†, and Thilo Kopp²

¹Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
²Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Universität Karlsruhe, Postfach 6980, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

^*Present address: Inst. TKM, Universität Karlsruhe, Postfach 6980, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany.
^†Present address: I. Inst. für Theor. Physik, Universität Hamburg, Jungiusstrasse 9, 20355 Hamburg, Germany.