Anomalous phonon peak in the superconducting state ofErNi211B2C

An anomalous phonon peak that appears only in the superconducting state has been reported for nonmagnetic intermetallic superconductor RNi211B2C (R=Y, Lu). In the present paper, we shall demonstrate that another rare-earth borocarbide ErNi211B2C seems to show similar phonon anomalies. A spectral weight transfer from the above-lying TA phonon mode to the aforementioned peak was rather small, but it is consistent with the theoretical prediction for the system with smaller 2Δ/Eph ratio. Combining the present results with those observed in the other borocarbide systems, we suggest that such a phonon anomaly might be a common phenomenon for superconductors with a strong nesting feature of the Fermi surface