On the electrical resistivity of chevrel phases

The diverse and anomalous electrical resistivity behaviour of binary and ternary chevrel phases AxMo3X4 (A=Cu, Pb, Zn, etc; 0<or=x<or=2; X=S, Se, Te) is discussed. The saturation model is applied to analyse resistivity data obtained with Mo3Se4 and CuMoSe4, in which the high-temperature resistivity is attributed to a conduction-electron mean-free path comparable to the lattice spacing. The low-temperature resistivity of these materials shows a T2 dependence characteristic of electron-phonon scattering.