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Main Authors: Dias, Juliana Gonçalves, Sundar, Shyam, Mendonça-Ferreira, Leticie, Avila, Marcos A.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21110
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author Dias, Juliana Gonçalves
Sundar, Shyam
Mendonça-Ferreira, Leticie
Avila, Marcos A.
author_facet Dias, Juliana Gonçalves
Sundar, Shyam
Mendonça-Ferreira, Leticie
Avila, Marcos A.
contents The presence of strong disorder can significantly impact electrical conduction in metallic systems. Here, we investigate the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, $ρ(T)$, in nonmagnetic single crystals of the Remeika-phase cage compounds R$_3$Co$_4$Ge$_{13}$ (R = Y, Lu). Contrary to the density of states (DOS) calculations in the literature, the experimentally measured $ρ(T)$ in both compounds exhibits semiconducting-like behavior, which we attribute to the strong structural disorder due to its unique crystal structure and low carrier-density. A detailed analysis of the electrical resistivity data reveals that neither the Arrhenius thermal activation law nor variable-range hopping (VRH) models can adequately describe their temperature dependence over the broad temperature range of 2-350 K. However, a model incorporating parallel conduction through both semiconducting and metallic channels provides an adequate explanation. In addition to a dominant metallic conduction below $\sim 10$~K, a negative temperature coefficient of the electrical resistivity ($dρ/dT$) is found in both samples. In the absence of magnetic impurities, the observed $dρ/dT < 0$ is interpreted in terms of the structural Kondo mechanism.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_21110
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anomalous temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity in R$_3$Co$_4$Ge$_{13}$ (R = Y, Lu) single crystals
Dias, Juliana Gonçalves
Sundar, Shyam
Mendonça-Ferreira, Leticie
Avila, Marcos A.
Materials Science
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Other Condensed Matter
The presence of strong disorder can significantly impact electrical conduction in metallic systems. Here, we investigate the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, $ρ(T)$, in nonmagnetic single crystals of the Remeika-phase cage compounds R$_3$Co$_4$Ge$_{13}$ (R = Y, Lu). Contrary to the density of states (DOS) calculations in the literature, the experimentally measured $ρ(T)$ in both compounds exhibits semiconducting-like behavior, which we attribute to the strong structural disorder due to its unique crystal structure and low carrier-density. A detailed analysis of the electrical resistivity data reveals that neither the Arrhenius thermal activation law nor variable-range hopping (VRH) models can adequately describe their temperature dependence over the broad temperature range of 2-350 K. However, a model incorporating parallel conduction through both semiconducting and metallic channels provides an adequate explanation. In addition to a dominant metallic conduction below $\sim 10$~K, a negative temperature coefficient of the electrical resistivity ($dρ/dT$) is found in both samples. In the absence of magnetic impurities, the observed $dρ/dT < 0$ is interpreted in terms of the structural Kondo mechanism.
title Anomalous temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity in R$_3$Co$_4$Ge$_{13}$ (R = Y, Lu) single crystals
topic Materials Science
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Other Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.21110