Electrical resistivities of single-crystalline transition-metal disilicides

Abstract

Single crystals of the group IVa to VIII transition‐metal disilicides, namely TiSi₂, VSi₂, CrSi₂, MoSi₂, αFeSi₂, and CoSi₂, have been successfully grown by a floating‐zone method. Temperature and crystallographic dependencies of the resistivity have been measured in the temperature range from 4.2 K to room temperature. The resistivity of all the disilicides show a positive temperature dependence and some anisotropy. The thermal component of the resistivity changes systematically with the group number of the metal elements and correlates well with the d band density of states at the Fermi energy.