Magnetotransport in Single Crystal Half-Heusler Compounds

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetotransport properties of single crystal Half-Heusler compounds, revealing semiconducting behavior, complex magnetic interactions, and unusual magnetoresistance phenomena that challenge current theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental data on magnetotransport in HfNiSn, TiPtSn, and TiNiSn, highlighting phenomena not explained by existing theories.

Findings

Semiconducting behavior with highly compensated carriers

Magnetoresistance is sublinear or linear at low temperatures

Normal quadratic magnetoresistance reappears at higher temperatures

Abstract

We present the results of electrical resistivity and Hall effect measurements on single crystals of HfNiSn, TiPtSn, and TiNiSn. Semiconducting behavior is observed in each case, involving the transport of a small number of highly compensated carriers. Magnetization measurements suggest that impurities and site disorder create both localized magnetic moments and extended paramagnetic states, with the susceptibility of the latter increasing strongly with reduced temperature. The magnetoresistance is sublinear or linear in fields ranging from 0.01 - 9 Tesla at the lowest temperatures. As the temperature increases, the normal quadratic magnetoresistance is regained, initially at low fields, and at the highest temperatures extending over the complete range of fields. The origin of the vanishingly small field scale implied by these measurements remains unknown, presenting a challenge to existing classical and quantum mechanical theories of magnetoresistance.