We show that the electron-phonon coupling in the transition-metal diborides NbB2 and TaB2 is dominated by the longitudinal acoustical (LA) mode, in contrast to the optical E_{2g} mode dominated coupling in MgB2. Our ab initio results, described in terms of phonon dispersion, linewidth, and partial electron-phonon coupling along Gamma to A, also show that (i) NbB2 and TaB2 have a relatively weak electron-phonon coupling, (ii) the E_{2g} linewidth is an order of magnitude larger in MgB2 than in NbB2 or TaB2, (iii) the E_{2g} frequency in NbB2 and TaB2 is considerably higher than in MgB2, and (iv) the LA frequency at A for TaB2 is almost half of that of MgB2 or NbB2.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0212443,
title = {Acoustical-Mode-Driven Electron-Phonon Coupling in Transition-Metal Diborides},
author = {Prabhakar P. Singh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0212443},
year = {2009}
}