Momentum-resolved electron-phonon interaction in lead determined by neutron resonance spin-echo spectroscopy

Abstract

Neutron resonance spin-echo spectroscopy was used to monitor the temperature evolution of the linewidths of transverse acoustic phonons in lead across the superconducting transition temperature, $T_c$, over an extended range of the Brillouin zone. For phonons with energies below the superconducting energy gap, a linewidth reduction of maximum amplitude $\sim 6 μ$eV was observed below $T_c$. The electron-phonon contribution to the phonon lifetime extracted from these data is in satisfactory overall agreement with {\it ab-initio} lattice-dynamical calculations, but significant deviations are found.