Experimental and theoretical study of the electronic structures of Y1−xRxPd2B2C (R = Gd, Dy, Ho, and Er) superconductors

The electronic structures of four polycrystalline borocarbide superconductors Y1−xRxPd2B2C (R = Gd, Dy, Ho, and Er) were studied by photoabsorption spectroscopy and theoretical calculation. The Pd and rare-earth L3-edge X-ray absorption near edge spectra (XANES) are compared with the calculated XANES spectra for these intermetallic compounds. The decrease of the superconducting transition temperatures with addition of rare-earth dopant in these compounds is not due to a decrease of the total density of states at the Fermi energy.