The effect of pressure on the resistivity and thermoelectric power of liquid mercury-indium alloys

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Abstract
The resistivity and thermopower of a series of liquid mercury-indium alloys have been measured to 150°c and 6000 atmospheres pressure. The concentrations ranged from pure mercury to 70% indium. The anomalous peak at 3 % indium in the thermopower under normal atmospheric pressure conditions found by Cusack et al. (1964) has been confirmed. At high pressures this peak diminishes. The pressure coefficients of resistivity fall rapidly from the value for pure mercury with increasing indium concentration. The experimental results are in qualitative agreement with a theory of Mott (1966) in which it is proposed that the density of states in pure liquid mercury is not free-electron-like. It is found that both alloying and increasing pressure tend to create conditions nearer to the free electron state.xs