Appearance of a correlation between the Hall coefficient and electrical resistivity upon dihydrogenation of yttrium

Abstract

To shed light on the correlation between the Hall coefficient (RH) and electrical resistivity (ρ), we performed simultaneous measurements of these two transport coefficients in fcc dihydride phase of yttrium (YHx), having H/Y values ranging from 1.73 to 2.04. Unlike the typical behavior of metals, an approximately linear relationship was observed between RH and ρ at room temperature after dihydrogenation of yttrium. Interpretation of this relationship, based on the Boltzmann–Bloch scheme, reveals that the transverse (cyclotron) relaxation rate (1/τc) of the carriers is relatively insensitive to the generation of hydrogen defects in the dihydride phase of yttrium, unlike the longitudinal relaxation rate (1/τ), which is affected by the presence of hydrogen defect. Low-temperature (77 K) measurements of RH and ρ on the same samples show that the approximately linear relationship observed at room temperature disappears but a certain nonlinear relationship may exist at 77 K.