Properties of Binary Transition-Metal Arsenides (TAs)

TL;DR

This study comprehensively characterizes the thermodynamic and transport properties of transition-metal arsenides, revealing their metallic behavior, magnetic ordering, and magnetoresistance, with implications for their electronic and magnetic applications.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental data on a range of TAs, highlighting their magnetic, thermoelectric, and transport properties, which were previously not systematically studied.

Findings

TaAs, NbAs, ScAs, ZrAs are diamagnetic.

FeAs and CrAs exhibit antiferromagnetic order.

MnAs shows ferromagnetism with large magnetoresistance.

Abstract

We present thermodynamic and transport properties of transition-metal (T) arsenides, TAs with T = Sc to Ni (3d), Zr, Nb, Ru (4d), Hf and Ta (5d). Characterization of these binaries is made with powder X-ray diffraction, temperature and field-dependent magnetization and resistivity, temperature-dependent heat capacity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity. All binaries show metallic behavior except TaAs and RuAs. TaAs, NbAs, ScAs and ZrAs are diamagnetic, while CoAs, VAs, TiAs, NiAs and RuAs show approximately Pauli paramagnetic behavior. FeAs and CrAs undergo antiferromagnetic order below TN = 71 K and TN \approx 260 K, respectively. MnAs is a ferromagnet below TC = 317 K and undergoes hexagonal-orthorhombic-hexagonal transitions at TS = 317 K and 384 K, respectively. For TAs, Seebeck coefficients vary between + 40 uV/K and - 40 uV/K in the 2 K to 300 K range, whereas thermal conductivity values stay below 18 W/(m K). The Sommerfeld-coefficient {\gamma} are less than 10 mJ/(K2mol). At room temperature with application of 8 Tesla magnetic field, large positive magnetoresistance is found for TaAs (~25%), MnAs (~90%) and for NbAs (~75%).