High field magnetotransport and specific heat in YbAgCu4

The electrical resistivity (ρ{variant}) and magnetoresistance of polycrystalline YbAgCu4 have been measured at temperatures between 25 mK and 300 K, and at magnetic fields (B) up to 18 T. The magnetoresistance (ρ{variant}(B) - ρ{variant}(0))/ρ{variant}(0)) is positive at all temperatures below 200 K and reaches its maximum of 60% at 18 T and 25 mK. The field- and temperature-dependent resistivity does not scale in a simple way. The opposite sign of the magnetoresistance at ambient and high pressure can be explained qualitatively by crystal-field effects lifting the degeneracy of the J = 7 2 groundstate. The linear coefficient of the specific heat (γ) measured at fields up to 10 T shows a quadratic field dependence. We did not find a linear relation between γ2 and A, the T2-coefficient of the temperature-dependent resistivity, with the applied magnetic field as the implicit parameter. © 1995