Role of Fe and sign reversal of the Hall coefficient in quasicrystalline Al-Cu-Fe

Electronic transport properties were measured for the stable icosahedral phase of Al-Cu-Fe for a large number of high-structural-quality samples of different compositions. At low temperature, the Hall coefficient RH and the conductivity σ are found to best correlate with the Fe content rather than with the electron per atom parameter which is usually used; RH changes sign at a concentration of 12.5 at. % Fe, where σ is at minimum. RH has a strong temperature dependence and can change sign with temperature. These features put the focus on the Fe d states and can be interpreted by a Hume-Rothery type of behavior including the sp-d hybridization effects.