Heavy fermion superconductivity in the filled skutterudite compound PrOs4_4Sb12_{12}

The filled skutterudite compound \PrOsSb{} has been found to exhibit superconductivity with a critical temperature $T_\mathrm{c} = 1.85$ K that develops out of a heavy Fermi liquid with an effective mass $m^{*} \approx 50 m_\mathrm{e}$. The current experimental situation regarding the heavy fermion state, the superconducting state, and a high field, low temperature phase that is apparently associated with magnetic or quadrupolar order in \PrOsSb{} is briefly reviewed herein.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, presented at the LT23 23rd International Conference on Low Temperature Physics, Hiroshima, Japa

Microwave properties of (PrxY1−x)Ba2Cu3O7−δ(Pr_xY_{1-x})Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta} : Influence of magnetic scattering

We report measurements of the surface impedance $Z_s=R_s+iX_s$ of $(Pr_xY_{1-x})Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}$, $(x=0,0.15,0.23,0.3,0.4,0.5)$. Increasing $Pr$ concentration leads to some striking results not observed in samples doped by non-magnetic constituents. The three principal features of the $R_s(T)$ data - multiple structure in the transition, a high residual resistance and, at high $Pr$ concentrations, an upturn of the low $T$ data, are all characteristic of the influence of magnetic scattering on superconductivity, and appear to be common to materials where magnetism and superconductivity coexist. The low $T$ behavior of $\lambda (T)$ appears to change from $T$ to $T^4$ at large $Pr$ doping, and provides evidence of the influence of magnetic pairbreaking of the $Pr$.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figures, Revtex, 2-column format, uses graphicx. To appear in Physica C. Postscript version also available at http://sagar.physics.neu.edu/preprints.htm

Nonlinear paramagnetic magnetization in the mixed state of CeCoIn_5

Torque and magnetization measurements in magnetic fields $H$ up to 14 T were performed on CeCoIn$_5$ single crystals. The amplitude of the paramagnetic torque shows an $H^{2.3}$ dependence in the mixed state and an $H^{2}$ dependence in the normal state. In addition, the mixed-state magnetizations for both $H\parallel c$ and $H\parallel ab$ axes show anomalous behavior after the subtraction of the corresponding paramagnetic contributions as linear extrapolations of the normal-state magnetization. These experimental results point towards a nonlinear paramagnetic magnetization in the mixed state of CeCoIn$_5$, which is a result of the fact that both orbital and Pauli limiting effects dominate in the mixed state.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, conferenc

Non-Fermi-liquid behavior in the Kondo lattices induced by peculiarities of magnetic ordering and spin dynamics

A scaling consideration of the Kondo lattices is performed with account of singularities in the spin excitation spectral function. It is shown that a non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) behavior between two critical values of the bare $s-f$ coupling constant occurs naturally for complicated magnetic structures with several magnon branches. This may explain the fact that a NFL behavior takes place often in the heavy-fermion systems with peculiar spin dynamics. Another kind of a NFL-like state (with different critical exponents) can occur for simple antiferromagnets with account of magnon damping, and for paramagnets, especially with two-dimensional character of spin fluctuations. The mechanisms proposed lead to some predictions about behavior of specific heat, resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and anisotropy parameter, which can be verified experimentally.Comment: 16 pages, RevTeX, 4 Postscript figures. Extended versio

Effect of annealing on glassy dynamics and non-Fermi liquid behavior in UCu_4Pd

Longitudinal-field muon spin relaxation (LF-muSR) experiments have been performed in unannealed and annealed samples of the heavy-fermion compound UCu_4Pd to study the effect of disorder on non-Fermi liquid behavior in this material. The muon spin relaxation functions G(t,H) obey the time-field scaling relation G(t,H) = G(t/H^gamma) previously observed in this compound. The observed scaling exponent gamma = 0.3 pm 0.1, independent of annealing. Fits of the stretched-exponential relaxation function G(t) = exp[-(Lambda t)^K] to the data yielded stretching exponentials K < 1 for all samples. Annealed samples exhibited a reduction of the relaxation rate at low temperatures, indicating that annealing shifts fluctuation noise power to higher frequencies. There was no tendency of the inhomogeneous spread in rates to decrease with annealing, which modifies but does not eliminate the glassy spin dynamics reported previously in this compound. The correlation with residual resistivity previously observed for a number of NFL heavy-electron materials is also found in the present work.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to 10th International Conference on Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation, and Resonance, Oxford, UK, August 200

Direct experimental verification of applicability of single-site model for angle integrated photoemission of small TKT_{K} concentrated Ce compounds

Bulk-sensitive high-resolution Ce 4f spectra have been obtained from 3d $\to$ 4f resonance photoemission measurements on La$_{1-x}$Ce$_x$Al$_2$ and La$_{1-x}$Ce$_x$Ru$_2$ for $x = 0.0, 0.04, 1.0$. The 4f spectra of low-Kondo-temperature ($T_{K}$) (La,Ce)Al$_2$ are essentially identical except for a slight increase of the Kondo peak with $x$, which is consistent with a known increase of $T_{K}$ with $x$. In contrast, the 4f spectra of high-$T_{K}$ (La,Ce)Ru$_2$ show a Kondo-like peak and also a 0.5 eV structure which increases strongly with $x$. The resonance photon-energy dependences of the two contributions are different and the origin of the 0.5 eV structure is still uncertain.Comment: submitted to SCES 2001, two-columnn format, modified tex

Improved superconducting properties of MgB2

We present electrical transport, magnetization, and specific heat measurements on bulk MgB2 samples (T_{c} = 38.5 K) synthesized under 200 MPa pressure using a process based on hot isostatic pressing with cooling under pressure. The samples are fully dense and display excellent superconducting properties, including a narrow superconducting transition width (\Delta T_{c} = 0.75 K), a high upper critical field H_{c2} (H_{c2}(0) ~ 155 kOe), and a critical current density J_{c} that is the largest yet measured for bulk samples of MgB2 (J_{c}(0) ~ 1.4 MA/cm^{2}). Specific heat measurements yielded a jump \Delta C at T_{c} of 92 mJ/mol K. These superconducting properties are comparable to those obtained with techniques that are not so well suited to industrial scale fabrication.Comment: 7 text pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physica

Superconductivity and crystalline electric field effects in the filled skutterudite series Pr(Os1−x_{1-x}Rux_x)4_4Sb12_{12}

X-ray powder diffraction, magnetic susceptibility $\chi(T)$, and electrical resistivity $\rho(T)$ measurements were made on single crystals of the filled skutterudite series Pr(Os$_{1-x}$Ru$_x$)$_4$Sb$_{12}$. One end of the series ($x = 0$) is a heavy fermion superconductor with a superconducting critical temperature $T_{c} = 1.85$ K, while the other end ($x = 1$) is a conventional superconductor with $T_{c} \approx 1$ K. The lattice constant $a$ decreases approximately linearly with increasing Ru concentration $x$. As Ru (Os) is substituted for Os (Ru), $T_{c}$ decreases nearly linearly with substituent concentration and exhibits a minimum with a value of $T_{c} = 0.75$ K at $x = 0.6$, suggesting that the two types of superconductivity compete with one another. Crystalline electric field (CEF) effects in $\chi_\mathrm{dc}(T)$ and $\rho(T)$ due to the splitting of the Pr$^{3+}$ nine-fold degenerate Hund's rule $J = 4$ multiplet are observed throughout the series, with the splitting between the ground state and the first excited state increasing monotonically as $x$ increases. The fits to the $\chi_\mathrm{dc}(T)$ and $\rho(T)$ data are consistent with a $\Gamma_{3}$ doublet ground state for all values of x, although reasonable fits can be obtained for a $\Gamma_{1}$ ground state for $x$ values near the end member compounds ($x = 0$ or $x = 1$).Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Glassy Spin Dynamics in Non-Fermi-Liquid UCu_{5-x}Pd_x, x = 1.0 and 1.5

Local f-electron spin dynamics in the non-Fermi-liquid heavy-fermion alloys UCu_{5-x}Pd_x, x = 1.0 and 1.5, have been studied using muon spin-lattice relaxation. The sample-averaged asymmetry function Gbar(t) indicates strongly inhomogeneous spin fluctuations, and exhibits the scaling Gbar(t,H) = Gbar(t/H^\gamma) expected from glassy dynamics. At 0.05 K \gamma(x=1.0) = 0.35 \pm 0.1, but \gamma(x=1.5) = 0.7 \pm 0.1. This is in contrast to inelastic neutron scattering results, which yield \gamma = 0.33 for both concentrations. There is no sign of static magnetism \gtrsim 10^{-3} \mu_B/U ion in either material above 0.05 K. Our results strongy suggest that both alloys are quantum spin glasses.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter

Susceptibility inhomogeneity and non-Fermi liquid behavior in UCu_{5-x}Pt_x

Transverse-field muSR shifts and relaxation rates have been measured in the non-Fermi liquid (NFL) alloy system UCu_{5-x}Pt_x, x = 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5. At low temperatures the fractional spread in Knight shifts delta K/K approx deltachi/chi is gtrsim 2 for x = 1, but is only half this value for x = 1.5 and 2.5. In a disorder-driven scenario where the NFL behavior is due to a broadly distributed (Kondo or Griffiths-phase cluster) characteristic energy E, our results indicate that delta E/E_{rm av} approx (delta K/K)_{T=0} is similar for UCu_{5-x}Pd_x (x = 1 and 1.5) and UCu_4Pt, but is reduced for UCu_{5-x}Pt_x, x = 1.5 and 2.5. This reduction is due to a marked increase of E with increasing x; the spread delta E is found to be roughly independent of x. Our results correlate with the observed suppression of other NFL anomalies for x > 1 in UCu_{5-x}Pt_x but not in UCu_{5-x}Pd_x, and are further evidence for the importance of disorder in the NFL behavior of both these alloy systems.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to 10th International Conference on Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation, and Resonance, Oxford, UK, August 200