Experimental validation of the anomalies in the electron density of states in semiconductor iron-vanadium-aluminum alloys

Abstract

The temperature dependences of the resistivity, Hall coefficient, and magnetic susceptibility of iron-vanadium-aluminum alloys have been investigated. It has been established that the alloy ${\mathrm{Fe}}_{1.9}{\mathrm{V}}_{1.1}\mathrm{Al}$ exhibits semiconductor behavior for the method used to obtain uniform alloys. It is shown that at temperatures below $30\mathrm{K}$ the semiconductor alloy possesses the characteristic low-temperature scale of the dependences observed, which could be responsible for the appearance of a narrow pseudogap in the electron density of states. A simple theoretical description of the effects of a pseudogap is proposed. A consistent fit of the theoretical to the experimental relations made it possible to determine the effective width of the pseudogap $(\sim 1\mathrm{MeV})$ and its relative depth $(\sim {10}^2)$ .