Critical behavior of the electrical resistivity in magnetic systems

Abstract

The effect of critical fluctuations on the resistivity near magnetic and order-disorder phase transitions is discussed. It is shown that in all magnetic and electronic systems the asymptotic high-momentum spin correlation functions dominate the temperature dependence of the resistivity sufficiently close to the transition. The dependence on the parameters of the system of the critical behavior and the way in which this behavior is approached is discussed in detail. In particular, the importance of the transition from a classical to a proper critical behavior, for the interpretation of experimental results, is emphasized, and recent renormalization-group results for the form of the correlation functions are utilized. For semiconductors the effects of fluctuations on the band gap are also calculated. It is suggested that the Fisher-Langer relation between the temperature derivative of the resistivity and the specific heat should be valid over a considerable temperature range outside the critical region. Theoretical predictions are compared with available experimental results on the resistivity and band gaps. It is shown that these results can all be understood, at least qualitatively, in the Born approximation by using only the most general known properties of the system.