Strongly correlated properties of the thermoelectric cobalt oxide Ca3Co4O9

Abstract

We have performed both in-plane resistivity, Hall effect and specific heat measurements on the thermoelectric cobalt oxide Ca$_{3}$Co$_{4}$O$_{9}$. Four distinct transport regimes are found as a function of temperature, corresponding to a low temperature insulating one up to $T_{min}\approx $63 K, a strongly correlated Fermi liquid up to $T^*\approx $140 K, with $ρ=ρ_0+AT^2$ and $A\approx 3.63$ $10^{-2} μΩcm/K^{2}$, followed by an incoherent metal with $k_Fl\leq 1$ and a high temperature insulator above T$^{**}\approx $510 K . Specific heat Sommerfeld coefficient $γ= 93$ mJ/(mol.K$^{2}$) confirms a rather large value of the electronic effective mass and fulfils the Kadowaki-Woods ratio $A/γ^2 \approx 0.45$ 10$^{-5}$ $μΩcm.K^2/(mJ^2mol^{-2})$. Resistivity measurements under pressure reveal a decrease of the Fermi liquid transport coefficient A with an increase of $T^*$ as a function of pressure while the product $A(T^*)^2/a$ remains constant and of order $h/e^2$. Both thermodynamic and transport properties suggest a strong renormalization of the quasiparticles coherence scale of order $T^*$ that seems to govern also thermopower.

5 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review B