Crystal growth, magnetic and transport properties of single-crystal YbCuGe

The magnetic and transport properties of single-crystal of YbCuGe are presented. The magnetic susceptibility which shows uniaxial anisotropic behavior along the c-axis in all temperature range has a kink at around 4.2 K. The specific heat also shows a lambda-type peak at 4.2 K, which moves toward low temperature side by an application of the magnetic field up to 90 kOe. The linear specific heat coefficient is estimated to be 5.2 mJ/mol K-2 from the zero field data. The electrical resistivity for the current along the principal axes shows a metallic behavior with a broad maximum at around 200 K. The Hall coefficient drastically changes from the negative minimum at 70 K to the positive constant value below 10 K. These results indicate that YbCuGe is a metallic antiferromagnet with T-N = 4.2 K. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.