Electrical Resistivity of Single-crystal SmIr2Si2

We have succeeded in growing single crystals of SmIr2Si2 by Sn-flux method. A single-crystal structure determination has revealed that the single crystals have the tetragonal ThCr2Si2- type crystal structure (I4/mmm, #139). The residual resistivity ratio RRR (=ρ300K/ρ2K) is 270, indicating the high quality of the samples. The electrical resistivity shows metallic behavior with slight downward curvature. A kink structure appearing at 37.8K indicates the existence of a phase transition. It is expected that investigations on the magnetism of SmIr2Si2 single crystals will help to understand the strongly-correlated electron physics of “partially magnetically-disordered (paramagnetic)” Sm ions in a magnetically ordered state, suggested recently in SmPt2Si2 [K. Fushiya et al, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 83, 113708 (2014)].