The metal-insulator-like and insulator-metal-like behaviors in antimony.

The resistivity and Hall resistivity of semimetallic antimony were measured from 2 to 300 K in magnetic fields up to 14 T. We found that in low field, the resistivity shows metallic behavior. In a modest field, the resistivity decreases to a minimum and then increases with decreasing temperature, showing a metal-insulator-like transition. In high field, the resistivity drops at low temperatures, showing an insulator-metal-like transition. The metal-insulator-like behavior can be explained by the competition of zero field resistivity and magneto-resistance, which is reciprocal to the zero field resistivity. The insulator-metal-like behavior can be explained by the imbalance of two carrier densities which changes the magneto-resistance from being reciprocal to proportional to the zero field resistivity.