Abstract
The magnetic, transport, and thermoelectric properties of a Tl-based misfit cobaltite have been investigated. Although this material exhibits a metallic behavior, the thermopower (Seebeck) is large, with room temperature values close to +90 μ V/K. Compared to previously studied misfit cobalt oxides this Tl-based misfit is the only compound of this family which remains metallic and paramagnetic down to 2 K. On the one hand, this behavior emphasizes the importance of the edge-shared octahedra in the layer for the thermoelectric properties of these materials. On the other hand, the absence of a magnetically ordered state at low temperature explains the absence of low temperature negative magnetoresistance. It gives support to a mechanism based on quantum fluctuations stabilizing the paramagnetic state rather than a magnetically ordered state.
- Received 6 April 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.64.172101
©2001 American Physical Society