Influence of electron-phonon interaction on the scattering of neutrons by conducting crystals

Abstract

The theory of the influence of phonon-phonon interactions on the location and width of the one-phonon peaks in the spectrum of inelastically scattered neutrons by single crystals, as developed earlier1), is extended to the case of metals to include the interaction between phonons and conduction electrons. Expressions are derived for the shift and width as a result of electron-phonon coupling and estimates are given for these quantities. In general the influence of electron-phonon interaction on the line shape of the scattering peaks will be small.