THE ELECTRICAL-RESISTIVITY AND SPECIFIC-HEAT OF NIGA

The electrical resistivity and specific heat of NiGa were measured bet ween 5 and 296 K and between 1.07 and 300 K, respectively, at zero mag netic field. This compound is metallic as shown from the room-temperat ure resistivity value (37.4 mu Omega cm). The residual resistivity rat io is 1.32, which indicates the defect scattering dominates at low tem peratures. The density of states at the Fermi energy and the Debye tem perature obtained from the low-temperature specific-heat measurement a re 1.48 states/eV formula unit and 202 K, respectively. The former is much higher than the value for NiAl. This observation suggests that th e Ni d-band in NiGa is not completely filled.