Crystal-field ground state of the non-centrosymmetric superconductor CePt3Si: a combined polarized soft X-ray absorption and polarized neutron study

TL;DR

This study combines polarized soft X-ray absorption and neutron scattering to determine the crystal-field ground state and level scheme of the non-centrosymmetric superconductor CePt3Si, providing detailed electronic structure insights.

Contribution

It presents the first combined use of polarized XAS and neutron scattering to elucidate the crystal-field states in CePt3Si, advancing understanding of its electronic structure.

Findings

Identified the crystal-field split Hund's rule ground state.

Mapped the sequence of crystal-field states from temperature-dependent XAS.

Complete crystal-field level scheme for CePt3Si.

Abstract

We determined the crystal-field split Hund's rule ground state of the non-centrosymmetric heavy fermion superconductor CePt3Si with polarization dependent soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and polarized neutron scattering. We are also able to give the sequence of the crystal-field states from the temperature evolution of the linear dichroic signal in the XAS. The quantitative analysis of the XAS temperature dependence together with the neutron transition energies complete the identification of the crystal-field level scheme.