Magnetic and electronic anisotropy in single crystalline YMn4Al8

Abstract

On a single crystal of YMn4Al8, we investigated specific heat and temperature-dependent magnetization M(T) and resistivity ρ(T) with field and current, respectively, parallel and perpendicular to the c axis. A few features are observed on single crystals and not on polycrystalline samples. While we found no noticeable anisotropy in M(T), there is a significant anisotropy in ρ(T), i.e., ρ‖(T)>ρ⊥(T) for T>43K and ρ‖(T)<ρ⊥(T) for T<43K, where ρ‖(T) and ρ⊥(T) are ρ(T)’s with current parallel and perpendicular to the c axis, respectively. In addition, a significant increase of γ, an electronic specific heat contribution, is found at low temperatures, resulting in γ(T=2K)=130mJ∕molK2.