Giant positive magnetoresistance and field-induced metal insulator transition in Cr2NiGa

Abstract

We report the magneto-transport properties of the newly synthesized Heusler compound Cr2NiGa which crystallizes in a disordered cubic B2 structure belonging to the Pmm space group. The sample is found to be paramagnetic down to 2 K with metallic characteristics. On application of a magnetic field, a significantly large increase in resistivity is observed which corresponds to magnetoresistance as high as 112% at 150 kOe of field at the lowest temperature. Most remarkably, the sample shows a negative temperature coefficient of resistivity below about 50 K under the application of field ⩾80 kOe, signifying a field-induced metal to ‘insulating’ transition. The observed magnetoresistance follows Kohler’s rule below 20 K indicating the validity of the semiclassical model of electronic transport in metals with a single relaxation time. A multi-band model for electronic transport, originally proposed for semimetals, is found to be appropriate to describe the magneto-transport behavior of the sample.