Ichiro Terasaki

We have investigated the nonmagnetic impurity effects on magnetic and thermal properties for the spin gap system Ba3CaRu2O9, which has the Ru2O9 dimers composed of two Ru5+ spins (S = 3/2). The measurements of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat have been carried out for the polycrystalline samples of Ba3Ca(Ru1−xNbx)2O9, where the Ru5+ spins are partially substituted by the non-magnetic Nb5+ ions. We have observed the magnetic behavior of the remained Ru5+ spins derived from breaking the singlet formation by the Nb-doping. These magnetic behaviors can be understood by the S = 3/2 free spin model under an internal magnetic field. Based on the obtained results, the mechanism of the singlet formation of Ba3CaRu2O9 is discussed.

We have investigated the transport properties of single crystals of a thermoelectric semimetal Ta2PdSe6 and its niobium-substituted (Ta1−xNbx)2PdSe6 by means of resistivity, thermopower, and Hall resistivity measurements. The residual resistivity ratio systematically decreases by the Nb-substitution, indicating enhanced impurity scattering. The slope and peak-top value of thermopower also systematically decrease upon increasing x. We have analyzed the set of transport data by using a two-carrier model, then revealed strong correlation between the thermopower and carrier mobility in the titled compound. We propose that controlling carrier mobility is a possible route to achieve a high-performance thermoelectric semimetal.