No abstract

The electronic energy bands of Pd metal have been determined using the nonrelativistic A.P.W. method. The Fermi surface, which consists of two hole surfaces and a compensating electron surface, agrees very well with the de Haas-van Alphen data of Vuillemin and Priestly. The electron surface is centered at Γ and contains approximately 0.3 electrons per Pd atom. One hole surface consists of a small pocket centered at X. The other hole surface is open along the [100] directions in agreement with galvanomagnetic measurements. The Fermi energy lies slightly above a maximum in the calculated density of states N (E) as expected from studies of dilute alloys. Using the computed N (EF) we obtain an electronic contribution to the specific heat which is only about half the observed value, indicating an electron-phonon enhancement typical for d-band metals. The computed paramagnetic susceptibility χ(T) is much smaller than the experimental value, emphasizing the importance of exchange in markedly enhancing χ(T), particularly at low temperatures. A full account of this work will be submitted to the Physical Review.