Non-Fermi-liquid scaling in U(Cu,Al){sub 5} compounds

Abstract

We report on the electronic properties of various UCu{sub x}Al{sub 5-x} compounds (2.9{le}x{le}3.5). These compounds crystallize in the hexagonal CaCu{sub 5} structure. For all compounds, we find that the low-temperature specific heat diverges logarithmitically, which may be taken as an indication of non-Fermi-liquid scaling in these materials. Also we find a large magnetic anisotropy in all compounds studied, and we show that the magnetic anisotropy should not be neglected in the analysis of other bulk properties. Though for some of UCu{sub x}Al{sub 5-x} polycrystals non-Fermi-liquid scaling is found also in the magnetic susceptibility, comparison with single-crystal results on UCu{sub 3}Al{sub 2} indicates that any temperature dependence may be due to averaging anisotropic response over all crystallographic directions