Chu L, Ding L, Wang C, Li M, Guo Y, Liu Z. Unusual Electrical Transport Driven by the Competition between Antiferromagnetism and Ferromagnetism in Antiperovskite Mn₃Zn
1-xCo
xN.
MATERIALS 2018;
11:ma11020286. [PMID:
29439522 PMCID:
PMC5848983 DOI:
10.3390/ma11020286]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2018] [Revised: 02/05/2018] [Accepted: 02/09/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The magnetic, electrical transport and thermal expansion properties of Mn3Zn1−xCoxN (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.7, 0.9) have been systematically investigated. Co-doping in Mn3ZnN complicates the magnetic interactions, leading to a competition between antiferromagnetism and ferromagnetism. Abrupt resistivity jump phenomenon and negative thermal expansion behavior, both associated with the complex magnetic transition, are revealed in all studied cases. Furthermore, semiconductor-like transport behavior is found in sample x = 0.7, distinct from the metallic behavior in other samples. Below 50 K, resistivity minimum is observed in samples x = 0.4, 0.7, and 0.9, mainly caused by e-e scattering mechanism. We finally discussed the strong correlation among unusual electrical transport, negative thermal expansion and magnetic transition in Mn3Zn1−xCoxN, which allows us to conclude that the observed unusual electrical transport properties are attributed to the shift of the Fermi energy surface entailed by the abrupt lattice contraction.
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