Coherent description of electrical and thermal impurity-and-phonon limited transport in simple metals

Abstract

The electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power and electronic thermal conductivity of simple (isotropic) metals are studied in a uniform way. Starting from results of a variational solution of the Boltzmann equation, a generalized Matthiessen rule is used in order to superpose the inelastic (or not) electron-phonon and elastic electron-impurity scattering cross sections ("matrix elements"). The temperature dependence relative to these processes is given through simple functions and physical parameters over the usually investigated range of temperature for each transport coefficient. The coherence of such results is emphasized.