No Arabic abstract
We have grown the new uranium compound URhIn$_5$ with the tetragonal HoCoGa$_5$-type by the In self flux method. In contrast to the nonmagnetic ground state of the isoelectronic analogue URhGa$_5$, URhIn$_5$ is an antiferromagnet with antiferromagnetic transition temperature $T_{rm N}$ = 98 K. The moderately large electronic specific heat coefficient $gamma$ = 50 mJ/K$^2$mol demonstrates the contribution of 5$f$ electrons to the conduction band. On the other hand, magnetic susceptibility in the paramagnetic state roughly follows a Curie-Weiss law with a paramagnetic effective moment corresponding to a localized uranium ion. The crossover from localized to itinerant character at low temperature may occur around the characteristic temperature 150 K where the magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistivity show a marked anomaly.
We report single crystal growth and physical properties characterization of YbFe$_2$Al$_{10}$ compounds. The measurements of resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat show different behaviors from previous studies on polycrystal samples. A mixed valent characteristic with moderate mass enhancement is indicated. In particular, the optical spectroscopy measurement reveals formation of multiple hybridization energy gaps which become progressively pronounced at low temperature. The multiple hybridization energy gaps are likely caused by the hybridizations between the flat band from Yb 4$f$ electrons and different bands of conduction electrons.
We have grown the single crystal of PrRhAl$_4$Si$_2$, which crystallizes in the tetragonal crystal structure. From the low temperature physical property measurements like, magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, heat capacity and electrical resistivity, we found that this compound does not show any magnetic ordering down to 70~mK. Our crystal field calculations on the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements reveal that the 9-fold degenerate $(2J+1)$ levels of Pr atom in PrRhAl$_4$Si$_2$, splits into 7 levels, with a singlet ground state and a well separated excited doublet state at 123~K, with a overall level splitting energy of 320~K.
We report on the synthesis and physical properties of cm-sized CoGeO$_3$ single crystals grown in a high pressure mirror furnace at pressures of 80~bar. Direction dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements on our single crystals reveal highly anisotropic magnetic properties that we attribute to the impact of strong single ion anisotropy appearing in this system with T$_N$~$sim$~33.5~K. Furthermore, we observe effective magnetic moments that are exceeding the spin only values of the Co ions which reveals the presence of sizable orbital moments in CoGeO$_3$.
Single crystals of BaRh_2As_2 have been synthesized from a Pb flux. We present the room temperature crystal structure, single crystal x-ray diffraction measurements as a function of temperature T, anisotropic magnetic susceptibility chi versus T, electrical resistivity in the ab-plane rho versus T, Hall coefficient versus T and magnetic field H, and heat capacity C versus T measurements on the crystals. The single crystal structure determination confirms that BaRh_2As_2 forms in the tetragonal ThCr_2Si_2 type structure (space group I4/mmm) with lattice parameters a = b = 4.0564(6)AA and c = 12.797(4) AA. Band structure calculations show that BaRh_2As_2 should be metallic with a small density of states at the Fermi energy N(E_ F) = 3.49 states/eV f.u. (where f.u. equiv formula unit) for both spin directions. rho(T) data in the ab-plane confirm that the material is indeed metallic with a residual resistivity rho(2K) = 29 mu Omega cm, and with a residual resistivity ratio rho(310K)/rho(2K) = 5.3. The observed chi(T) is small (sim 10^{-5} cm^3/mol) and weakly anisotropic with chi_{ab}/chi_ c approx 2. The C(T) data indicate a small density of states at the Fermi energy with the low temperature Sommerfeld coefficient gamma = 4.7(9) mJ/mol K^2. There are no indications of superconductivity, spin density wave, or structural transitions between 2K and 300K. We compare the calculated density of states versus energy of BaRh_2As_2 with that of BaFe_2As_2.
We have found that Ce3Pd20As6 crystallizes into a cubic C6Cr23-type structure. Combination of electron probe microanalysis of the chemical composition and Rietveld analysis of the powder X-ray diffraction pattern has revealed an inhomogeneous atomic composition of variable stoichiometry. The physical properties of Ce3Pd20As6 were investigated by measuring the magnetization, electrical resistivity and specific heat. The 4f electrons of Ce3+ ions are well localized but do not show phase transition down to 0.5 K. The metallic electrical resistivity shows a weak Kondo screening. The residual resistivity ratio is rather low probably due to the variable stoichiometry. The magnetization curve and magnetic entropy suggest the Gamma_8 quartet crystalline-electric-field ground state at least one of two Ce sites.