THERMOELECTRIC-POWER OF YCO12B6 AND GDCO12B6 INTERMETALLICS

The absolute thermoelectric power S(T) has been measured as a function of temperature for YCo12B6 and GdCo12B6 intermetallics in the tempera ture range 4.2 to 300 K. The experimental results show that the thermo electric power is nonlinear below the magnetic transition temperature T-c. A detailed analysis indicates that the main contribution to this nonlinear behavior comes from the scattering mechanism of conduction e lectrons by the magnetic atoms. We also show that the mean field theor etical model by Richter and Goedsche provides a qualitative explanatio n for the nonlinear behavior below T-c.