Anomalous temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity in R$_3$Co$_4$Ge$_{13}$ (R = Y, Lu) single crystals

Abstract

The presence of strong disorder can significantly impact electrical conduction in metallic systems. Here, we investigate the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, $\rho(T)$, 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 $\rho(T)$ 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 ($d\rho/dT$) is found in both samples. In the absence of magnetic impurities, the observed $d\rho/dT < 0$ is interpreted in terms of the structural Kondo mechanism.