  In order to investigate the electronic state in the normal state of high-Tc
cuprates in a wide range of temperature and hole-concentration, specific-heat,
electrical-resistivity, magnetization and muon-spin-relaxation (muSR)
measurements have been performed in non-superconducting Ni-substituted
La2-xSrxCu1-yNiyO4 where the superconductivity is suppressed through the
partial substitution of Ni for Cu without disturbing the Cu-spin correlation in
the CuO2 plane so much. In the underdoped regime, it has been found that there
exist both weakly localized holes around Ni and itinerant holes at high
temperatures. With decreasing temperature, all holes tend to be localized,
followed by the occurrence of variable-range hopping conduction at low
temperatures. Finally, in the ground state, it has been found that each Ni2+
ion traps a hole strongly and that a magnetically ordered state appears. In the
overdoped regime, on the other hand, it has been found that a Kondo-like state
is formed around each Ni2+ spin at low temperatures. In conclusion, the ground
state of non-superconducting La2-xSrxCu1-yNiyO4 changes upon hole doping from a
magnetically ordered state with the strong hole-trapping by Ni2+ to a metallic
state with Kondo-like behavior due to Ni2+ spins, and the quantum phase
transition is crossover-like due to the phase separation into short-range
magnetically ordered and metallic regions.
