Non-Fermi liquid behavior in a fluctuating valence system, the filled skutterudite compound CeRu_{4}As_{12}

Electrical resistivity $\rho$, specific heat C, and magnetic susceptibility $\chi$ measurements made on the filled skutterudite CeRu_4As_{12} reveal non-Fermi liquid (NFL) T - dependences at low T, i.e., $\rho$(T) $\sim$ T^{1.4} and weak power law or logarithmic divergences in C(T)/T and $\chi$(T). Measurements also show that the T - dependence of the thermoelectric power S(T) deviates from that seen in other Ce systems. The NFL behavior appears to be associated with fluctuations of the Ce valence between 3^+ and 4^+ rather than a typical Kondo lattice scenario that would be appropriate for an integral Ce valence of 3^+.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Inelastic neutron scattering studies of Crystal Field Levels in PrOs4_4As12_{12}

We use neutron scattering to study the Pr$^{3+}$ crystalline electric field (CEF) excitations in the filled skutterudite PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$. By comparing the observed levels and their strengths under neutron excitation with the theoretical spectrum and neutron excitation intensities, we identify the Pr$^{3+}$ CEF levels, and show that the ground state is a magnetic $\Gamma_4^{(2)}$ triplet, and the excited states $\Gamma_1$, $\Gamma_4^{(1)}$ and $\Gamma_{23}$ are at 0.4, 13 and 23 meV, respectively. A comparison of the observed CEF levels in PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$ with the heavy fermion superconductor PrOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$ reveals the microscopic origin of the differences in the ground states of these two filled skutterudites.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Strongly Correlated F-Electron Systems: A PES Study

The term heavy fermions refers to materials (thus far only compounds with elements having an unfilled 4f or 5f shells) whose large specific heat {gamma}-values suggest that the conduction electrons at low temperatures have a very heavy effective mass. Magnetic susceptibility measurements, {chi}, generally yield a Curie-Weiss behavior at high temperatures with a well developed moment, which would be consistent with localized behavior of the f-electrons. Thus, the f-electrons appear to behave as non-interacting single impurities at elevated temperature. Below a characteristic Kondo temperature, T{sub K}, the susceptibility levels off or even decreases. This is interpreted as a compensation of the f-moment by the ligand conduction electrons that are believed to align anti-parallel to form a singlet state and has led to the widespread use of the Anderson Impurity Hamiltonian and the Single Impurity Model (SIM). Weak hybridization with these conduction electrons yields a narrow, highly temperature dependent, DOS at the Fermi energy, often referred to as the Kondo resonance (KR). At still lower temperatures it is generally agreed that in stoichiometric compounds a lattice of these singlet states finally results in extremely narrow bands at the Fermi energy, whose bandwidth is of the order k{sub B}T{sub K}. Clearly coherent bands cannot form above T{sub K} owing to the narrow width. A model for periodic Kondo systems will inevitably have to include the lattice. Preliminary PAM calculations indicate that this inclusion yields results differing qualitatively, rather than just quantitatively, from the SIM predictions. The photoemission data on single crystal heavy fermions are consistent with the following PAM predictions: (1) the temperature dependence of the KR is much slower than expected from the SIM; indeed, it is primarily7 due to broadening and Fermi function truncation; (2) the spectral weight of the KR relative to the localized 4f feature (not discussed here) is much larger than the SIM expectations (equivalently, n{sub f} values are far too small); (3) the KR and its sidebands does not lose spectral weight with T, but rather only broadens; (4) f-electrons in both Ce and U systems form narrow bands already far above T{sub K} (the jury is still out for Yb systems); (5) the width of these bands is much larger than k{sub B}T{sub K}; (6) f-character is obtained in only some regions of the Brillouin zone; i.e., momentum dependence of the KR above T{sub K}. While the PAM seems to predict the correct trends, they have no reason yet to rule out other models, such as those of Liu and Sheng and Cooper. Such discrimination may occur when the models develop sufficiently to allow real system calculations

A de Haas-van Alphen study of the filled skutterudite compounds PrOs4_4As12_{12} and LaOs4_4As12_{12}

Comprehensive magnetic-field-orientation dependent studies of the susceptibility and de Haas-van Alphen effect have been carried out on single crystals of the filled skutterudites PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$ and LaOs$_4$As$_{12}$ using magnetic fields of up to 40~T. Several peaks are observed in the low-field susceptibility of PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$, corresponding to cascades of metamagnetic transitions separating the low-field antiferromagnetic and high-field paramagnetic metal (PMM) phases. The de Haas-van Alphen experiments show that the Fermi-surface topologies of PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$ in its PMM phase and LaOs$_4$As$_{12}$ are very similar. In addition, they are in reasonable agreement with the predictions of bandstructure calculations for LaOs$_4$As$_{12}$ on the PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$ lattice. Both observations suggest that the Pr 4$f$ electrons contribute little to the number of itinerant quasiparticles in the PMM phase. However, whilst the properties of LaOs$_4$As$_{12}$ suggest a conventional nonmagnetic Fermi liquid, the effects of direct exchange and electron correlations are detected in the PMM phase of PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$. For example, the quasiparticle effective masses in PrOs$_4$As$_{12}$ are found to decrease with increasing field, probably reflecting the gradual suppression of magnetic fluctuations associated with proximity to the low-temperature, low-field antiferromagnetic state

Orbital Kondo behavior from dynamical structural defects

The interaction between an atom moving in a model double-well potential and the conduction electrons is treated using renormalization group methods in next-to-leading logarithmic order. A large number of excited states is taken into account and the Kondo temperature $T_K$ is computed as a function of barrier parameters. We find that for special parameters $T_K$ can be close to $1 {\rm K}$ and it can be of the same order of magnitude as the renormalized splitting $\Delta$. However, in the perturbative regime we always find that T_K \alt \Delta with a T_K \alt 1 {\rm K} [Aleiner {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 2629 (2001)]. We also find that $\Delta$ remains unrenormalized at energies above the Debye frequency, $\omega_{\rm Debye}$.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, RevTe