Observation of Low-Energy Einstein Phonon and Superconductivity in Single-Crystalline LaBe13

The thermal and electrical transport properties of single-crystalline LaBe13 have been investigated by specific-heat (C) and electrical-resistivity (ρ) measurements. The specific-heat measurements in a wide temperature range revealed the presence of a hump anomaly near 40 K in the C(T)/T curve, indicating that LaBe13 has a low-energy Einstein-like-phonon mode with a characteristic temperature of ∼177 K. In addition, a superconducting transition was observed in the ρ measurements at the transition temperature of 0.53 K, which is higher than the value of 0.27 K reported previously by Bonville et al. Furthermore, an unusual T3 dependence was found in ρ(T) below ∼50 K, in contrast to the behavior expected from the electron–electron scattering or the electron–Debye phonon scattering.