Title: Observation of non-Fermi liquid behavior in hole doped Eu2Ir2O7,
Abstract: The Weyl semimetallic compound Eu2Ir2O7 along with its hole doped derivatives
(which is achieved by substituting trivalent Eu by divalent Sr) are
investigated through transport, magnetic and calorimetric studies. The
metal-insulator transition (MIT) temperature is found to get substantially
reduced with hole doping and for 10% Sr doping the composition is metallic down
to temperature as low as 5 K. These doped compounds are found to violate the
Mott-Ioffe-Regel condition for minimum electrical conductivity and show
distinct signature of non-Fermi liquid behavior at low temperature. The MIT in
the doped compounds does not correlate with the magnetic transition point and
Anderson-Mott type disorder induced localization may be attributed to the
ground state insulating phase. The observed non-Fermi liquid behavior can be
understood on the basis of disorder induced distribution of spin orbit coupling
parameter which is markedly different in case of Ir4+ and Ir5+ ions.