Glassy magnetic state and negative temperature coefficient of resistivity in Mn3+δIn

Abstract

The complex metallic alloy ${\mathrm{Mn}}_{3}\mathrm{In}$ has recently attracted attention for being a probable candidate for the fully compensated half-metallic ferrimagnet. The compound is associated with a rather unusual negative coefficient of resistivity approximately above the ferrimagnetic, ${T}_{C}=80\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$. Our investigation indicates that that the ground state of the alloy is spin-glass like, which possibly coexists with the ferrimagnetic state. The carrier density obtained from the Hall-effect measurement shows a jump below ${T}_{C}$; afterward, it gradually increases with lowering temperature and shows a saturating tendency at the lowest temperature. The electronic structure calculations indicate that, at the Fermi energy, dominant contributions come from minority-spin channels with larger bandwidth. In contrast, very weak but nonzero states arise from the majority-spin channel, and half metallicity can be ruled out. The calculations also found that the antiferromagnetic alignment of Mn spins with nonzero resultant magnetic moment confirms the ferrimagnetic nature consistent with the experimental results. The high-temperature phase with negative temperature coefficient of resistivity can be related to the localization of charge carriers through electron-phonon interactions.