ELECTRONIC TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES OF THE SEMIMETALLIC HEAVY-FERMION YBBIPT

The electronic transport properties of YbBiPt are examined in the temp erature range 4-325 K to gain insight into the electronic structure of this compound. The magnitude of the strongly magnetic-field-dependent Hall effect is consistent with a semimetallic electronic structure. T he data place an upper limit on the carrier concentration of 6X10(20) holes/cm(3). The thermoelectric power (TEP) is dominated by a large ph onon-drag peak below 100 K, while above 200 K the TEP is dominated by a large linear-in-temperature contribution. The temperature-dependent resistivity manifests very little indication of a magnetic scattering contribution. These characteristics indicate the YbBiPt is a low-carri er concentration semimetal. It appears that this low-carrier conductin g state is closely tied to the massively renormalized electronic state evident in this compound below 1 K.