The thermoelectric power of pure copper

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Abstract
Measurements of the absolute thermoelectric power S of very pure copper samples (with residual resistivity ratios as low as 3·1 × 10−4) have been carried out between ∼0·l°K and ∼350°K. Several specimens were found to exhibit marked negative anomalies in S between 8°K and 9°K, whereas a very pure sample of natural copper gave small but positive values of S at low temperatures. By emphasizing that S depends on the relative importance of the various scattering mechanisms we have been able to show that the anomalies occur whenever scattering by traces of iron becomes dominant, other impurities being of only minor importance. Moreover we are able to account for the occurrences of similar anomalies, as well as the resistance minima, in dilute alloys of oxygen-containing copper with various solutes (e.g. Ga, Ge, Sn …) not in terms of these particular solutes directly, but only in so far as they separate traces of iron from its oxide, thereby bringing it into solid solution. At about 70°K there is a positive peak in S which we ascribe to an Umklapp phonon-drag component.

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