Low Temperature Transport And Thermodynamic Properties Of The Zintl Compound Yb11alsb9: A New Kondo Lattice Semiconductor

Abstract

A thorough transport and thermodynamic investigation of flux-grown single crystals of the ternary Zintl phase Yb-11 AlSb9, combined with first-principles density functional theory calculations, shows that this compound is a metal above T approximate to 100 K and a semiconductor with small hybridization gap at low-T. The general behavior resembles those of Kondo lattice semiconductors, although some of the measured properties are strongly sample dependent, as often seen in hybridized f-electron materials. We thus suggest that Yb-11 AlSb9 can be considered as a new Yb-based Kondo lattice semiconductor joining the family of strongly correlated electron systems. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.