Magnetic Field Effect on Crossover Temperature from Non-Fermi Liquid to Fermi Liquid Behavior in f^2-Impurity Systems with Crystalline-Electric-Field Singlet State Competing with Kondo-Yosida Singlet State

TL;DR

This paper studies how magnetic fields influence the crossover from non-Fermi liquid to Fermi liquid behavior in f^2-impurity systems with a CEF singlet ground state, revealing two mechanisms that affect the characteristic temperature and matching experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of magnetic field effects on NFL to FL crossover in f^2 systems, identifying two mechanisms and their crossover behavior, supported by numerical renormalization group calculations.

Findings

Magnetic field induces two mechanisms: f-electron polarization and channel anisotropy.

Crossover temperature T_F^{*}(H) exhibits different H-dependencies depending on the dominant mechanism.

Results reproduce NFL behaviors and magnetic responses observed in Th_{1-x}U_xRu_2Si_2.

Abstract

We investigate the magnetic field dependence of the physical properties of f^2-configuration systems with a crystalline-electric field (CEF) singlet ground state, which gives rise to a non- Fermi liquid (NFL) fixed point due to the competition between the Kondo-Yosida singlet and CEF singlet states. On the basis of the numerical renormalization group method, we find that the magnetic field breaks this NFL fixed point via two mechanisms: one causing the polarization of f-electrons and the other giving the "channel" anisotropy. These two mechanisms induce a difference in the magnetic field dependence of the characteristic temperature T_F^{*}(H), the crossover temperature from NFL to Fermi-liquid behavior. While the polarization of f-electrons gives T_F^{*}(H) \propto H^x (x\sim2.0), the "channel" anisotropy gives the H-independent T_F^{*}(H). These two mechanisms cross over continuously at approximately the crossover magnetic field H_c, where an anomalous H-dependence of T_F^{*}(H) appears. Such T_F^{*}(H) well reproduces the NFL behaviors observed in Th_{1-x}U_xRu_2Si_2. We also find that the H-dependence of the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility are in good agreement with the experimental results of this material. These results suggest that the NFL behaviors observed in Th_{1-x}U_xRu_2Si_2 can be understood if this material is located in the CEF singlet side near the critical phase boundary between the two singlet states.