Influence of Carbon Concentration on the Superconductivity in MgCxNi3

Abstract

The influence of carbon concentration on the superconductivity (SC) in MgC$_{x}$Ni$_3$ has been investigated by measuring the low temperature specific heat combined with first principles electronic structure calculation. It is found that the specific heat coefficient $γ_n=C_{en}/T$ of the superconducting sample ($x\approx1$) in normal state is twice that of the non-superconducting one ($x\approx 0.85$). The comparison of measured $γ_n$ and the calculated electronic density of states (DOS) shows that the effective mass renormalization changes remarkably as the carbon concentration changes. The large mass renormalization for the superconducting sample and the low $T_{c}$(7K) indicate that more than one kind of boson mediated electron-electron interactions exist in MgC$_{x}$Ni$_3$.

4 pages, 4 figures