Transport and thermodynamic properties of the metallic kagome compound Sc₃Mn₃Al₇Si₅

The two-dimensional corner-sharing kagome lattice offers a significant platform to explore physics in magnetism, topology, and electron correlations. These inherent characteristics of the kagome lattice can induce exotic states of matter, such as quantum spin liquids and flat energy bands. Sc₃Mn₃Al₇Si₅ is a metallic compound with a hexagonal structure, in which magnetic Mn atoms form kagome nets [1]. We have synthesized single crystals of Sc₃Mn₃Al₇Si₅ and measured magnetotransport and thermodynamic properties at low temperatures. Our transport measurements exhibit no anomaly down to 20 mK, indicating that strong quantum fluctuations persist to the lowest temperatures due to the geometrical frustration in the kagome lattice. We observe a logarithmic increase in resistivity below 20 K, reminiscent of the Kondo effect. The low-temperature resistivity is suppressed by applying fields. Torque magnetometry measurements reveal no sign of a magnetic phase transition or saturation in magnetization up to 35 T at 0.3 K. We will also discuss the nature of strong electronic correlations in kagome metal Sc₃Mn₃Al₇Si₅ evident by heat capacity measurements at low temperatures.



[1] H. He et al., Inorganic Chemistry 53, 17 (2014).