Calculation of temperature dependence of electrical resistivity in the transuranium metals and their alloys

The temperature dependence of electrical resistivity (ER) in fcc transuranium metals-plutonium, americium, and curium and some plutonium-based dilute alloys-has been considered within the Mott two-band conductivity model. It has been shown that the physical origin of the experimentally obtained temperature dependence of ER, including negative temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR), is an ordinary electron-phonon interaction and its interference with electron-impurity interaction in the case of dilute alloys. A simple criterion of the negative TCR at high temperatures (T>theta(D)) was formulated and applied to explain qualitatively the experimental TCR data in Pu-based dilute alloys. To make numerical evaluation of ER of pure metals and their alloys at high temperature, the coherent potential approach for the Mott two-band conductivity model was combined with ab initio obtained fcc Pu, Am, and Cm densities of states as the starting point in the iteration procedure. The fcc curium LDA+U+SO density of states was reported and discussed in detail. The results of the ER theoretical investigations were compared with available experimental data.