Anomalous Transport Behavior of a Binary Cd-Yb Icosahedral Quasicrystal

• Published in: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics Vol. 40; no. 9A; p. L912
• Main Authors: J. Sato, Ryuji Tamura, Pan Tsai, Ang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 15.09.2001
• ISSN: 0021-4922; 1347-4065
• DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.40.L912

Electronic properties of the recently discovered binary Cd-Yb icosahedral( i ) phase have been found to be strikingly different from those of ternary i -phases studied so far: The resistivity decreases rapidly (by 10–80% depending on the composition) with decreasing temperature down to about 10 K and levels off below 10 K. A giant magnetoresistance reaching as high as 200% at 9 T is observed at low temperatures. The electronic specific heat coefficient γ is very large, i.e., 2.87 mJ/(mole·K 2 ), and the Debye temperature Θ D is as low as 140 K, which are in striking contrast with the trend observed in ternary i -phases. These anomalous features indicate that a different transport mechanism other than those proposed for ternary i -phases has to be considered for the present binary i -phase.