Anomalous Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Heavy-Fermion PrFe4P12

We have investigated the anisotropy of the magnetoresistance in the Pr-based HF compound PrFe4P12. The large anisotropy of effective mass and its strong field dependence have been confirmed by resistivity measurements. Particularly for H||[111], where the effective mass is most strongly enhanced, the non-Fermi liquid behavior has been observed. Also, we have found the angular dependence of the magnetoresistance sharply enhanced at H||[111], which is evidently correlated with both the non-Fermi liquid behavior and the high-field ordered state (B-phase).Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.77, No.8, in pres

Elastic properties of the Non-Fermi liquid metal CeRu4Sb12Ce Ru_4 Sb_{12} and the Dense Kondo semiconductor CeOs4Sb12Ce Os_4 Sb_{12}

We have investigated the elastic properties of the Ce-based filled skutterudite antimonides CeRu$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ and CeOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ by means of ultrasonic measurements. CeRu$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ shows a slight increase around 130 K in the temperature dependence of the elastic constants $C$$_{11}$, ($C$$_{11}$-$C$$_{12}$)/2 and $C$$_{44}$. No apparent softening toward low temperature due to a quadrupolar response of the 4$f$-electronic ground state of the Ce ion was observed at low temperatures. In contrast CeOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ shows a pronounced elastic softening toward low temperature in the longitudinal $C$$_{11}$ as a function of temperature ($T$) below about 15 K, while a slight elastic softening was observed in the transverse $C$$_{44}$ below about 1.5 K. Furthermore, CeOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ shows a steep decrease around a phase transition temperature of 0.9 K in both $C$$_{11}$ and$C$$_{44}$. The elastic softening observed in $C$$_{11}$ below about 15 K cannot be explained reasonably only by the crystalline electric field effect. It is most likely to be responsible for the coupling between the elastic strain and the quasiparticle band with a small energy gap in the vicinity of Fermi level. The elastic properties and the 4$f$ ground state of Ce ions in CeRu$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ and CeOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ are discussed from the viewpoint of the crystalline electric field effect and the band structure in the vicinity of Fermi level.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, regular pape

ASCA Observations of the Jet Source XTE J1748-288

XTE J1748-288 is a new X-ray transient with a one-sided radio jet. It was observed with ASCA on 1998/09/06 and 1998/09/26, 100 days after the onset of the radio-X-ray outburst. The spectra were fitted with an attenuated power-law model, and the 2-6-keV flux was 4.6 * 10^{-11} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} and 2.2 * 10^{-12} on 09/06 and 09/26, respectively. The light curve showed that the steady exponential decay with an e-folding time of 14 days lasted over 100 days and 4 orders of magnitude from the peak of the outburst. The celestial region including the source had been observed with ASCA on 1993/10/01 and 1994/09/22, years before the discovery. In those period, the flux was < 10^{-13} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2}, below ASCA's detection limit. The jet blob colliding to the environmental matter was supposedly not the X-ray source, although the emission mechanism has not been determined. A possible detection of a K line from highly ionized iron is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJL. Fig2 is replaced with correct on

Phenomenological theory of a scalar electronic order: application to skutterudite PrFe4P12

By phenomenological Landau analysis, it is shown that a scalar order parameter with the point-group symmetry $\Gamma_{1g}$ explains most properties associated with the phase transition in PrFe$_4$P$_{12}$ at 6.5 K. The scalar-order model reproduces magnetic and elastic properties in PrFe$_4$P$_{12}$ consistently such as (i) the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility and elastic constant at the transition temperature, (ii) anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility in the presence of uniaxial pressure, and (iii) the anomaly in the elastic constant in magnetic field. An Ehrenfest relation is derived which relates the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility to that of the elastic constant at the transition.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Transport properties of the heavy fermion superconductor PrOs4_{4}Sb12_{12}

We have measured the electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power, Hall coefficient, and magnetoresistance (MR) on single crystals of PrOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$, LaOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ and NdOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$. All the transport properties in PrOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ are similar to those in LaOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ and NdOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ at high temperatures, indicating the localized character of 4$f$-electrons. The transverse MR both in LaOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ and PrOs$_{4}$Sb$_{12}$ tends to saturate for wide field directions, indicating these compounds to be uncompensated metals with no open orbit. We have determined the phase diagram of the field induced ordered phase by the MR measurement for all the principle field directions, which indicates an unambiguous evidence for the $\Gamma_{\rm 1}$ singlet crystalline electric field ground state.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Physical Review