Crystal Growth, Structure, and Physical Properties of Ln(Cu,Ga)13−x (Ln = La−Nd, Eu; x ≈ 0.2)

Abstract

Single crystals of Ln(Cu,Ga)13−x (Ln = La−Nd, Eu; x ≈ 0.2) were grown using Ga flux and their structures determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Ln(Cu,Ga)13−x (Ln = La−Nd, Eu; x ≈ 0.2), adopting NaZn13 structure type, crystallizes in the cubic Fm3̅c (No. 226) space group, with Z = 8 and lattice parameters a ≈ 11.8 Å. Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements do not show any indication of long-range magnetic ordering down to 2 K for magnetic analogues. Metallic behavior is observed in the range of 2−300 K for each compound. A large positive magnetoresistance up to 154% at a field (μ0H) of 9 T is also observed for Pr(Cu,Ga)12.85(1). Most interestingly, the Pr analogue shows T2 temperature-dependent resistivity and satisfies Kadowaki-Woods relation, which is indicative of heavy-fermion behavior. Here, we present the crystal structures and physical properties of Ln(Cu,Ga)13−x (Ln = La−Nd, Eu; x ≈ 0.2).