PdTe: a strongly coupled superconductor

We report the electrical transport, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of polycrystalline PdTe which exhibits superconductivity below 4.5 K. Using the measured values for the lower (H(c1)) and upper (H(c2)) critical fields, and the specific heat C(p), we estimate the thermodynamic critical field H(c)(0), coherence length xi(0), penetration depth lambda (0), and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa. Compared with band structure calculations, the density of states at the Fermi level is enhanced due to electron-phonon coupling with lambda(ep) D = 1.4. Furthermore, the large values of Delta C(p)/gamma(n)T(c) and 2 Delta (0)/k(B)T(c) suggest that PdTe is a strongly coupled superconductor.