| Sumario: | Anomalous behavior of the resistivity at or just below the Néel temperature in antiferromagnetic metals is usually attributed to the formation of superzone gaps. However, we find that RMn12−xFex alloys which have no such gaps exhibit a similarly anomalous resistivity. We show that electron scattering by substitutional spin disorder can account for such behavior of itinerant magnets. This mechanism, which has not been studied before, leads to a relaxation rate that is proportional to x(12−x)m2, where m is the staggered magnetization. Together with spin fluctuations, phonon, and impurity scattering, it accounts well for the resistivity data we obtain for HoMn12−xFex, for 0≤x≤9, in the temperature range of 4 to 400 K.
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