Electric and thermal transport properties of topological insulator candidate LiMgBi

We report the transport properties of a topological insulator candidate, LiMgBi. The electric resistivity of the title compound exhibits a metal-to-semiconductor-like transition at around 160 K and tends to saturation below 50 K. At low temperatures, the magnetoresistance is up to ~260% at 9 T and a clear weak antilocalization effect is observed in the low magnetic-field region. The Hall measurement reveals that LiMgBi is a multiband system, where hole-type carriers (n_h~10¹⁸ cm^-3) play a major role in the transport process. Remarkably, LiMgBi possess a large Seebeck coefficient (~440 μV/K) and a moderate thermal conductivity at room temperature, which indicate that LiMgBi is a promising candidate in thermoelectric applications.