Magnetic Order and SdH Effect in Half-Heusler Phase ErPdBi

Single crystals of ErPdBi were grown from Bi-flux. The crystal structure of MgAgAs-type was confirmed using X-ray diffraction. Magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistance and heat capacity measurements revealed an antiferromagnetic phase transition at T-N = 1.2 K. At high temperatures, the electrical resistance has a semiconducting-like character (dR/dT < 0). The resistance starts decreasing with decreasing T below 15 K and shows a very sharp drop below T-N but remains finite down to 0.4 K. Hence, no obvious evidence of superconductivity was found in the electrical transport data. On the other hand, the real part of AC magnetic susceptibility is negative below T-c = 1.6 K and its imaginary component has a clear maximum at this temperature that might be associated with the onset of superconducting state. The electrical resistance revealed Shubnikov de Haas oscillations in magnetic fields 8-33 T. Their amplitude decreases with increasing T and disappears above 10 K. Cyclotron mass determined from this dependence is 0.21 m(e).