Electrical and magnetic properties of tantalum silicon telluride and isostructural compounds

Abstract Electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and lattice parameter measurements for the family of low-dimensional compounds, M 4 ZTe 4 (M=Ta, Z=Si, Cr, Fe, Co, and Ni; M=Nb, Z=Si, Fe) are reported. The compounds with Z=Si are diamagnetic and the resistivity curves suggest two phase transitions, possibly due to charge density waves in these pseudo one-dimensional systems. For Z=Cr, Fe, Co, and Ni the compounds are paramagnetic metals with characteristics of typical intermetallic phases.