XXV. The specific heats of germanium and grey tin at low temperatures

Abstract The specific heats of germanium and grey tin have been measured from liquid helium temperatures up to 170° and 110° k respectively. A comparison of the results with existing data shows that previous measurements on germanium do not represent the behaviour of the pure material, whereas those for grey tin are satisfactory. It is also shown that the temperature variations of the Debye characteristic temperatures of these elements are very large, and qualitatively similar to those of diamond and silicon. This behaviour is thought to be characteristic of lattices of diamond structure, but the possibility of the existence of anomalous contributions to the specific heat is also discussed.