  Magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and electrical resistivity
measurements have been performed on single-crystal EuBe13 in the temperature
range between 2 and 300 K to investigate its phonon property and the valence
state of the Eu ion. The obtained temperature dependence of the magnetic
susceptibility curves obey a typical Van Vleck susceptibility for Eu3+ with a
nonmagnetic ground state in the entire measured temperature range. In the case
of the specific heat, we observed the coexistence of Debye and Einstein phonon
modes with characteristic Debye and Einstein temperatures of ~ 835 K and ~167
K, respectively, which are in good agreement with those previously reported for
other isostructural MBe13 compounds (M = rare earths and actinides). The
temperature dependence of the resistivity for EuBe13 shows an unusual T-cubed
like dependence at low temperatures, as also observed for the nonmagnetic
isostructural compound LaBe13, which can be reproduced well by calculations
based on electron--phonon scattering using the estimated Debye temperature and
Einstein temperature. We also summarized the relationship between the
Eu-valence state and the free distance between the Eu ion and the
first-nearest-neighbor atoms in several Eu-based cubic compounds, and argued
that EuBe13 takes the Eu3+ state despite its larger free distance than other
Eu3+ compounds.
