Magnetic, electronic transport and thermodynamic properties of Ce5CuSn3

Possible double magnetic phase transition in

“…The existence of these compounds was discovered more than 40 years ago [1,2]. However, the investigations of their magnetic properties have been performed on a few compounds, namely on Ce 5 AgSn 3 [3], Ce 5 CuSn 3 [4,5] and Ce 5 CuSb 3 [6]. It is worthwhile to mention that the Ag-based compound orders ferromagnetically below 5 K and exhibiting simultaneously an intermediated valence state of the cerium ions.…”

Magnetism of the series of intermetallic Ce5CuM3 compounds, where M=Sn, Pb and Bi

“…A further reduction in the magnitude (0.9μ B compared to 1.28μ B ) is tentatively ascribed to the Kondo effect, which in fact has been documented to be present in this compound [4]. This scenario could be hold for Ce 5 CuSn 3 [1]. However, the above interpretation is questioned in the case of Ce 5 CuPb 3 , for which we have no evidence of the Kondo effect yet [3].…”

“…In fact it has been shown that these Ce 5 CuM 3 compounds undergo into several successive magnetic phase transitions at low temperatures [2][3][4]. However, the most remarkable finding of our studies is the observation of heavy-fermion (HF) characteristics which manifest them self by an enhancement in the electronic specific-heat coefficient of some Ce 5 CuM 3 compounds [1,2,4] Generally for magnetic Ce-based intermetallics the formation of the HF state is believed to be the result of competition between the Kondo effect and long-range RKKY exchange interaction [5]. In this context the coexistence of the HF property and magnetic ordering in Ce 5 CuM 3 series offers the possibility to study the effect of competing above mentioned interactions.…”

“…Detail of experimental procedure has been given previously [1,3,4]. Some experimental data are illustrated in Figs (ii) Saturation moments are remarkably reduced in comparison to that of the free Ce 3+ ions.…”

“…The potential of such a study for physics is to discover new physical phenomena as well as to establish a systematic trend in the magnetic behaviour of these intermetallics, and hopefully to determine at least main factors responsible for their magnetism. Recently, our attention has focused on the series Ce 5 CuM 3 , where M = Sn, Sb, Pb and Bi [1][2][3][4]. Except for Ce 5 CuSb 3 with an orthorhombic structure [2] the other compounds have found to crystallize in the hexagonal Hf 5 CuSn 3 -type structure [6][7][8].…”