YbPd2In : A promising candidate for strong entropy accumulation at very low temperature

We report on synthesis, crystal structure, magnetic, thermodynamic, and transport properties of the compound YbPd2In, crystallizing as a Heusler structure type. A trivalent state of the rare earth was determined by fitting the magnetic susceptibility with a Curie-Weiss law. This compound is characterized by showing very weak magnetic interactions and a negligible Kondo effect. A specific-heat jump was observed at T 48250mK, followed at higher temperature by a power-law decrease of CP(T)/T. The resulting large electronic entropy increase at very low temperature is rapidly shifted to higher temperature by the application of magnetic field. This magnetocaloric effect places YbPd2In as a very good candidate for adiabatic demagnetization cooling processes

Physical properties of the magnetically frustrated very-heavy-fermion compound YbCu4Ni

The physical properties of the very-heavy-fermion compound YbCu4Ni were characterized through structural, magnetic, thermal, and transport studies along nearly four decades of temperature ranging between 50 mK and 300 K. At high temperature, the crystal electric field level splitting was determined with \u3941(\u3936)=85K and \u3942(\u3938) 48200K, the latter being a quartet in this cubic symmetry. An effective magnetic moment \u3bceff 483\u3bcB is evaluated for the \u3937 ground state, while at high temperature the value for a Yb3+ ion is observed. At low temperature this compound shows the typical behavior of a magnetically frustrated system undergoing a change of regime at a characteristic temperature T 17 48200mK into of Fermi-liquid-type "plateau" of the specific heat: Cm/T|T\u21920 = const. The change in the temperature dependence of the specific heat coincides with a maximum and a discontinuity in respective inductive and dissipative components of the ac susceptibility. More details about the nature of this ground state are revealed by the specific heat behavior under applied magnetic field

Structural and physical properties of the new stannide Yb3Pd4Sn13

Among the new discovered intermetallics in the Yb-Pd-Sn system, the cubic phase Yb3Pd4Sn13, with a lattice parameter of 0.9743(5) nm, emerges as a new member of the R3T4Sn13 family (R = rare earth element, T = transition metal) crystallizing in the Yb3Rh4Sn13-structure type. The effective magnetic moment \u3bceff = 1:84 \u3bcB/Yb is strongly reduced. Moreover, measurements of magnetic properties, specific heat and resistivity indicate superconductivity below 2.4 K. This compound is found to exhibit a strongly enhanced electronic specific heat at low temperature from which we infer a possible low-lying magnetic phase transition or other source of magnetic entropy