Physical properties of KMgBi single crystals

TL;DR

This study reports the successful growth and characterization of KMgBi single crystals, revealing semiconducting behavior, potential topological insulator properties, and complex multiband electronic features.

Contribution

First successful synthesis of KMgBi single crystals and detailed analysis of its electronic and topological properties.

Findings

KMgBi shows semiconducting behavior with a high-temperature metal-semiconductor transition.

Resistivity plateau observed at low temperatures suggests topological insulator characteristics.

Strong temperature dependence of carrier concentrations and mobilities indicates multiband electronic structure.

Abstract

KMgBi single crystals are grown by using the Bi flux successfully. KMgBi shows semiconducting behavior with a metal-semiconductor transition at high temperature region and a resistivity plateau at low temperature region, suggesting KMgBi could be a topological insulator with a very small band gap. Moreover, KMgBi exhibits multiband feature with strong temperature dependence of carrier concentrations and mobilities.