No Arabic abstract
We report low temperature specific heat, C, magnetization, M, susceptibility, chi, and electrical resistivity, rho, measurements on high-quality single crystals of the heavy-fermion system YbRh_2(Si_{1-x} Ge_x)_2 (x=0 and 0.05). The undoped compound shows weak antiferromagnetic (AF) order at T_N=70 mK which is suppressed to below 10 mK by a tiny volume expansion in the x=0.05 system. In the latter pronounced deviations from Landau Fermi liquid (LFL) behavior occur, e.g. Delta rho ~ T over three decades in T. Both thermodynamic and magnetic properties show a crossover at about 0.3 K: At 0.3 K <= T <= 10 K we observe C/T ~ log(T_0/T) and a non-Curie behavior chi^{-1} ~ T^alpha with alpha<1 similar to what was found for the prototypical system CeCu_{5.9} Au_{0.1}. Below 0.3 K, chi turns into a Curie-Weiss dependence chi^{-1} ~ (T-Theta) indicating large unscreened Yb^{3+} moments whereas in C(T)/T a pronounced upturn occurs. In the undoped compound the AF order is suppressed continuously by critical fields B_{c0} ~= 0.06 T and 0.7 T applied perpendicular and parallel to the c-axis, respectively. For B>B_{c0} a LFL state with Delta rho = A(B)T^2 and C(T)/T = gamma_0(B) is induced, that fulfills the Kadowaki-Woods scaling A ~ gamma_0^2. Upon reducing the magnetic field to B_{c0} a 1/(B-B_{c0}) dependence of A(B) and gamma_0^2(B) indicates singular scattering at the whole Fermi surface and a divergence of the heavy quasiparticle mass.
We report DC magnetization measurements on YbRh_2Si_2 at temperatures down to 0.04K, magnetic fields B<11.5T and under hydrostatic pressure P<1.3GPa. At ambient pressure a kink at B*=9.9T indicates a new type of field-induced transition from an itinerant to a localized 4f-state. This transition is different from the metamagnetic transition observed in other heavy fermion compounds, as here ferromagnetic rather than antiferromagnetic correlations dominate below B*. Hydrostatic pressure experiments reveal a clear correspondence of B* to the characteristic spin fluctuation temperature determined from specific heat.
A quantum critical point (QCP) of the heavy fermion Ce(Ru_{1-x}Rh_x)_2Si_2 (x = 0, 0.03) has been studied by single-crystalline neutron scattering. By accurately measuring the dynamical susceptibility at the antiferromagnetic wave vector k_3 = 0.35 c^*, we have shown that the energy width Gamma(k_3), i.e., inverse correlation time, depends on temperature as Gamma(k_3) = c_1 + c_2 T^{3/2 +- 0.1}, where c_1 and c_2 are x dependent constants, in a low temperature range. This critical exponent 3/2 +- 0.1 proves that the QCP is controlled by that of the itinerant antiferromagnet.
Heavy fermion systems, and other strongly correlated electron materials, often exhibit a competition between antiferromagnetic (AF) and singlet ground states. Using exact Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, we examine the effect of impurities in the vicinity of such AF- singlet quantum critical points, through an appropriately defined impurity susceptibility, $chi_{imp}$. Our key finding is a connection, within a single calculational framework, between AF domains induced on the singlet side of the transition, and the behavior of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation rate $1/T_1$. We show that local NMR measurements provide a diagnostic for the location of the QCP which agrees remarkably well with the vanishing of the AF order parameter and large values of $chi_{imp}$. We connect our results with experiments on Cd-doped CeCoIn$_5$.
We report on muon spin rotation studies of the noncentrosymmetric heavy fermion antiferromagnet CeRhSi$_3$. A drastic and monotonic suppression of the internal fields, at the lowest measured temperature, was observed upon an increase of external pressure. Our data suggest that the ordered moments are gradually quenched with increasing pressure, in a manner different from the pressure dependence of the Neel temperature. At $unit{23.6}{kbar}$, the ordered magnetic moments are fully suppressed via a second-order phase transition, and $T_{rm{N}}$ is zero. Thus, we directly observed the quantum critical point at $unit{23.6}{kbar}$ hidden inside the superconducting phase of CeRhSi$_3$.
YbCo$_2$Ge$_4$ is a clean paramagnetic Kondo lattice which displays non-Fermi liquid behavior. We report a detailed investigation of the specific heat, magnetic Gruneisen parameter ($Gamma_{rm mag}$) and temperature derivative of the magnetization ($M$) on a high-quality single crystal at temperatures down to $0.1$~K and magnetic fields up to 7~T. $Gamma_{rm mag}$ and $dM/dT$ display a divergence upon cooling and obey $T/B$ scaling. Similar behavior has previously been found in several other Yb-based Kondo lattices and related to a zero-field quantum critical point without fine tuning of pressure or composition. However, in the approach of $Brightarrow 0$ the electronic heat capacity coefficient of YbCo$_2$Ge$_4$ saturates at low $T$, excluding ferromagnetic quantum criticality. This indicates that $T/B$ scaling is insufficient to prove a zero-field quantum critical point.