Transport properties in antiferromagnetic quantum Griffiths phases

Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science & Technology - Rolla, MO 65409, USA

Received: 15 June 2011
Accepted: 26 July 2011

Abstract

We study the electrical resistivity in the quantum Griffiths phase associated with the antiferromagnetic quantum phase transition in a metal. The resistivity is calculated by means of the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. We show that the scattering of electrons by locally ordered rare regions leads to a singular temperature dependence. The rare-region contribution to the resistivity varies as T^λ with temperature T, where λ is the usual Griffiths exponent which takes the value zero at the critical point and increases with distance from criticality. We find similar singular contributions to other transport properties such as thermal resistivity, thermopower and the Peltier coefficient. We also compare our results with existing experimental data and suggest new experiments.