Electronic Properties of the Semiconductor RuIn$_3$

TL;DR

This study investigates the electronic properties of RuIn$_3$ single crystals, revealing semiconducting behavior with a specific energy gap, resistivity anisotropy, and impurity activation energies, supported by experimental and theoretical analyses.

Contribution

It provides new temperature-dependent resistivity data and band structure calculations showing semiconducting behavior of RuIn$_3$, contrasting previous findings.

Findings

Semiconducting gap of 0.4-0.5 eV at high temperatures

Resistivity anisotropy along different crystal orientations

Impurity activation energies of 1 meV and 10 meV

Abstract

Temperature dependent measurements of the resistivity on RuIn$_3$ single crystals show a semiconducting behaviour, in contrast to previously published results. In the high temperature range the semiconducting gap was measured to be $0.4-0.5$eV. We observe an anisotropy of the resistivity along [110] and [001] orientations of the tetragonal single crystals. At low temperatures two activation energies of impurities were estimated to 1meV and 10meV. The temperature dependence of the specific heat and the band structure calculations provide also a semiconducting behaviour of RuIn$_3$.