Electrical resistivity of the RMBi phases with R = Ca, Yb and M = Cu, Ag, Au

The electrical resistivity of the phases CaAgBi, CaAuBi, YbAgBi in the range 10-300 K and CaCuBi, YbCuBi, YbAuBi in the range 10-600 K was measured. All compounds show metallic behaviour. The phonon contribution with an additional cubic term are used to represent the temperature dependence of the resistivity for the gold and silver phases. Anomalous features in the thermal cycling resistivity, imputable to the occurrence of microcracks, are found for the CaCuBi and YbCuBi samples. Moreover, YbCuBi shows a phase transition at 375 K, probably due to a crystallographic transformation from the LiGaGe to the ZrBeSi structure type.