Electron-Phonon Coupling in the Conventional Superconductor YNi_{2}B_{2}C at High Phonon Energies Studied by Time-of-Flight Neutron Spectroscopy (original) (raw)

2012, Physical Review Letters

We report an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of phonons with energies up to 159 meV in the conventional superconductor YNi2B2C. Using the SWEEP mode, a newly developed timeof-flight technique involving the continuous rotation of a single crystal specimen, allowed us to measure a four dimensional volume in (Q, E) space and, thus, determine the dispersion surface and linewidths of the A1g (≈ 102 meV) and Au (≈ 159 meV) type phonon modes for the whole Brillouin zone. Despite of having linewidths of Γ = 10 meV, A1g modes do not strongly contribute to the total electron-phonon coupling constant λ. However, experimental linewidths show a remarkable agreement with ab-initio calculations over the complete phonon energy range demonstrating the accuracy of such calculations in a rare comparison to a comprehensive experimental data set.

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