Electronic Properties of the Semiconductor RuIn$_3$

Abstract

Temperature dependent measurements of the resistivity on RuIn$_3$ single crystals show a semiconducting behaviour, in contrast to previously published results. In the high temperature range the semiconducting gap was measured to be $0.4-0.5$eV. We observe an anisotropy of the resistivity along [110] and [001] orientations of the tetragonal single crystals. At low temperatures two activation energies of impurities were estimated to 1meV and 10meV. The temperature dependence of the specific heat and the band structure calculations provide also a semiconducting behaviour of RuIn$_3$.