Resistance and Susceptibility Anomalies in IrTe2 and CuIr2Te4

AbstractIrTe2has the CdI2structure and CuIr2Te4has a defect-NiAs structure at room temperature. Both compounds show basically metallic behavior. Magnetic and resistance anomalies, showing a hysteresis in temperature, have been found in IrTe2and CuIr2Te4. On heating, the resistivity ρ exhibits a hump-shaped maximum around 270 and 250 K for IrTe2and CuIr2Te4, respectively. The magnetic susceptibility χ reveals a step-like anomaly which gives evidence of a difference in the value of the Pauli paramagnetism between the high- and low temperature sides, corresponding to the anomalous behavior in ρ. These anomalies of ρ and χ in IrTe2originate from a gradual structure deformation with temperature, where the crystal symmetry changes from high temperature trigonal $$P\overline 3 m1$$ to low temperature monoclinic C2/m.