Crystal structure, electronic and physical properties of monoclinic RECuTe2 in contrast to RECuSe2 (RE = Pr, Sm, Gd, Dy and Er)

The ternary tellurides RECuTe2 (RE = Gd, Dy and Er) have been synthesized, their crystal structure and charge transport properties have been investigated. The tellurides adopt a monoclinicly distorted variant (C2/m, z = 2) of the trigonal structure (P3¯ m1, Z = 1) observed for RECuSe2 with RE = Dy, Er. The charge transport properties of RECuSe2 with RE = Pr and Sm have been also explored. While RECuTe2 display a metallic type resistivity, RECuSe2 show semiconducting properties. The room-temperature resistivities are between 0.22 and 10.5 Ω cm, with larger values observed for the selenides. Electronic structure calculations support metallic and semiconducting conductivities for the tellurides and selenides, respectively. The Seebeck coefficient indicates that the dominant charge carries are holes for all phases.