542 research outputs found
Anisotropy, disorder, and superconductivity in CeCu2Si2 under high pressure
Resistivity measurements were carried out up to 8 GPa on single crystal and
polycrystalline samples of CeCu2Si2 from differing sources in the homogeneity
range. The anisotropic response to current direction and small uniaxial
stresses was explored, taking advantage of the quasi-hydrostatic environment of
the Bridgman anvil cell. It was found that both the superconducting transition
temperature Tc and the normal state properties are very sensitive to uniaxial
stress, which leads to a shift of the valence instability pressure Pv and a
small but significant change in Tc for different orientations with respect to
the tetragonal c-axis. Coexistence of superconductivity and residual
resistivity close to the Ioffe-Regel limit around 5 GPa provides a compelling
argument for the existence of a valence-fluctuation mediated pairing
interaction at high pressure in CeCu2Si2.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Remarkable magnetostructural coupling around the magnetic transition in CeCoFeSi
We report a detailed study of the magnetic properties of
CeCoFeSi under high magnetic fields (up to 16 Tesla)
measuring different physical properties such as specific heat, magnetization,
electrical resistivity, thermal expansion and magnetostriction.
CeCoFeSi becomes antiferromagnetic at 6.7 K.
However, a broad tail (onset at 13 K) in the specific heat
precedes that second order transition. This tail is also observed in the
temperature derivative of the resistivity. However, it is particularly
noticeable in the thermal expansion coefficient where it takes the form of a
large bump centered at . A high magnetic field practically washes out that
tail in the resistivity. But surprisingly, the bump in the thermal expansion
becomes a well pronounced peak fully split from the magnetic transition at
. Concurrently, the magnetoresistance also switches from negative to
positive just below . The magnetostriction is considerable and
irreversible at low temperature (
410 at 2 K) when the magnetic interactions dominate. A broad
jump in the field dependence of the magnetostriction observed at low may be
the signature of a weak ongoing metamagnetic transition. Taking altogether, the
results indicate the importance of the lattice effects in the development of
the magnetic order in these alloys.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure
Similar temperature scale for valence changes in Kondo lattices with different Kondo temperatures
The Kondo model predicts that both the valence at low temperatures and its
temperature dependence scale with the characteristic energy T_K of the Kondo
interaction. Here, we study the evolution of the 4f occupancy with temperature
in a series of Yb Kondo lattices using resonant X-ray emission spectroscopy. In
agreement with simple theoretical models, we observe a scaling between the
valence at low temperature and T_K obtained from thermodynamic measurements. In
contrast, the temperature scale T_v at which the valence increases with
temperature is almost the same in all investigated materials while the Kondo
temperatures differ by almost four orders of magnitude. This observation is in
remarkable contradiction to both naive expectation and precise theoretical
predictions of the Kondo model, asking for further theoretical work in order to
explain our findings. Our data exclude the presence of a quantum critical
valence transition in YbRh2Si2
High Resolution Photoemission Study on Low-T_K Ce Systems: Kondo Resonance, Crystal Field Structures, and their Temperature Dependence
We present a high-resolution photoemission study on the strongly correlated
Ce-compounds CeCu_6, CeCu_2Si_2, CeRu_2Si_2, CeNi_2Ge_2, and CeSi_2. Using a
normalization procedure based on a division by the Fermi-Dirac distribution we
get access to the spectral density of states up to an energy of 5 k_BT above
the Fermi energy E_F. Thus we can resolve the Kondo resonance and the crystal
field (CF) fine-structure for different temperatures above and around the Kondo
temperature T_K. The CF peaks are identified with multiple Kondo resonances
within the multiorbital Anderson impurity model. Our theoretical 4f spectra,
calculated from an extended non-crossing approximation (NCA), describe
consistently the observed photoemission features and their temperature
dependence. By fitting the NCA spectra to the experimental data and
extrapolating the former to low temperatures, T_K can be extracted
quantitatively. The resulting values for T_K and the crystal field energies are
in excellent agreement with the results from bulk sensitive measurements, e.g.
inelastic neutron scattering.Comment: 16 two-column pages, 10 figure
Possible re-entrant superconductivity in EuFe2As2 under pressure
We studied the temperature-pressure phase diagram of EuFe2As2 by measurements
of the electrical resistivity. The antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave
transition at T_0 associated with the FeAs-layers is continuously suppressed
with increasing pressure, while the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature of
the Eu 2+ moments seems to be nearly pressure independent up to 2.6 GPa. Above
2 GPa a sharp drop of the resistivity, \rho(T), indicates the onset of
superconductivity at T_c \approx 29.5 K. Surprisingly, on further reducing the
temperature \rho(T) is increasing again and exhibiting a maximum caused by the
ordering of the Eu 2+ moments, a behavior which is reminiscent of re-entrant
superconductivity as it is observed in the ternary Chevrel phases or in the
rare-earth nickel borocarbides
High-resolution resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering as a probe of the crystal electrical field in lanthanides demonstrated for the case of CeRh2Si2
The magnetic properties of rare earth compounds are usually well captured by
assuming a fully localized f shell and only considering the Hund's rule ground
state multiplet split by a crystal electrical field (CEF). Currently, the
standard technique for probing CEF excitations in lanthanides is inelastic
neutron scattering. Here we show that with the recent leap in energy
resolution, resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering has become a serious
alternative for looking at CEF excitations with some distinct advantages
compared to INS. As an example we study the CEF scheme in CeRh2Si2, a system
that has been intensely studied for more than two decades now but for which no
consensus has been reached yet as to its CEF scheme. We used two new features
that have only become available very recently in RIXS, high energy resolution
of about 30 meV as well as polarization analysis in the scattered beam, to find
a unique CEF description for CeRh2Si2. The result agrees well with previous INS
and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Due to its strong resonant character,
RIXS is applicable to very small samples, presents very high cross sections for
all lanthanides, and further benefits from the very weak coupling to phonon
excitation. The rapid progress in energy resolution of RIXS spectrometers is
making this technique increasingly attractive for the investigation of the CEF
scheme in lanthanides
Tuning Heavy Fermion Systems into Quantum Criticality by Magnetic Field
We discuss a series of thermodynamic, magnetic and electrical transport
experiments on the two heavy fermion compounds CeNi2Ge2 and YbRh2Si2 in which
magnetic fields, B, are used to tune the systems from a Non-Fermi liquid (NFL)
into a field-induced FL state. Upon approaching the quantum-critical points
from the FL side by reducing B we analyze the heavy quasiparticle (QP) mass and
QP-QP scattering cross sections. For CeNi2Ge2 the observed behavior agrees well
with the predictions of the spin-density wave (SDW) scenario for
three-dimensional (3D) critical spin-fluctuations. By contrast, the observed
singularity in YbRh2Si2 cannot be explained by the itinerant SDW theory for
neither 3D nor 2D critical spinfluctuations. Furthermore, we investigate the
magnetization M(B) at high magnetic fields. For CeNi2Ge2 a metamagnetic
transition is observed at 43 T, whereas for YbRh2Si2 a kink-like anomaly occurs
at 10 T in M vs B (applied along the easy basal plane) above which the heavy
fermion state is completely suppressed.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Journal of Low Temperature Physics,
special Series on "High Magnetic Field Facilities
Ising-type Magnetic Anisotropy in CePdAs
We investigated the anisotropic magnetic properties of CePdAs by
magnetic, thermal and electrical transport studies. X-ray diffraction confirmed
the tetragonal ThCrSi-type structure and the high-quality of the single
crystals. Magnetisation and magnetic susceptibility data taken along the
different crystallographic directions evidence a huge crystalline electric
field (CEF) induced Ising-type magneto-crystalline anisotropy with a large
-axis moment and a small in-plane moment at low temperature. A detailed CEF
analysis based on the magnetic susceptibility data indicates an almost pure
CEF ground-state doublet with the dominantly
and the doublets at 290 K and 330
K, respectively. At low temperature, we observe a uniaxial antiferromagnetic
(AFM) transition at K with the crystallographic -direction being
the magnetic easy-axis. The magnetic entropy gain up to reaches almost
indicating localised -electron magnetism without significant
Kondo-type interactions. Below , the application of a magnetic field along
the -axis induces a metamagnetic transition from the AFM to a
field-polarised phase at T, exhibiting a text-book example
of a spin-flip transition as anticipated for an Ising-type AFM.Comment: 9 Pages, 8 figure
Violation of critical universality at the antiferromagnetic phase transition of YbRh2Si2
We report on precise low-temperature specific-heat measurements, C(T), of
YbRh2Si2 in the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic phase transition on a single
crystal of superior quality (RRR 150). We observe a very sharp peak at T_N=72mK
with absolute values as high as C/T=8J/molK^2. A detailed analysis of the
critical exponent \alpha around T_N reveals \alpha=0.38 which differs
significantly from those of the conventional universality classes in the
Ginzburg-Landau theory, where \alpha<0.11. Thermal-expansion measurements
corroborate this large positive critical exponent. These results provide
insight into the nature of the critical magnetic fluctuations at a
temperature-driven phase transition close to a quantum critical point.Comment: Accepted for PR
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