Structural, magnetic, transport, and thermoelectric properties of the pseudobrookite AlTiO-TiO system

擬ブルッカイト化合物AlTiO-TiO系の構造・磁気・輸送・熱電特性

高濱 隆成*; 石井 透依*; 犬童 代梧*; 有薗 実駿*; 寺倉 千恵子*; 十倉 好紀*; 竹下 直*; 野田 正亮*; 桑原 英樹*; 斎木 琢夫*; 勝藤 拓郎*; 梶本 亮一  ; 奥田 哲治*

Takahama, Ryusei*; Ishii, Toi*; Indo, Daigo*; Arizono, Mitsutoshi*; Terakura, Chieko*; Tokura, Yoshinori*; Takeshita, Nao*; Noda, Masaaki*; Kuwahara, Hideki*; Saiki, Takuo*; Katsufuji, Takuro*; Kajimoto, Ryoichi; Okuda, Tetsuji*

We investigated the structural, magnetic, transport, and high-temperature thermoelectric properties of single crystals of the pseudobrookite AlTiO for grown using a floating zone. We found a correlation of spin-singlet Ti-Ti dimers coupled with the lattice even in the conductive and phases which develops with increasing . This developing dimer correlation reduces the number of unpaired Ti ions, which makes the compound more conductive owing to the suppression of disorder for up to about 0.75. The dimer fluctuation causes a critical enhancement of the magnetic susceptibility at around 150 K in the phase near the boundary () between the and the phases. Such a correlation of the spin-singlet Ti-Ti dimers may produce a high Seebeck coefficient in the conductive and phases leading to a large thermoelectric power factor at high temperatures.