Doping Effects on the Electronic Structure of an Anisotropic Kondo Semiconductor CeOs$_2$Al$_{10}$: An Optical Study with Re and Ir Substitution

TL;DR

This study investigates how Re and Ir doping affect the electronic structure and magnetic order in the anisotropic Kondo semiconductor CeOs$_2$Al$_{10}$, suggesting charge ordering as the origin of magnetic order.

Contribution

It provides optical conductivity evidence linking charge excitations to magnetic order, supporting charge density wave/ordering as the cause.

Findings

The $c$-$f$ hybridization gap decreases with doping.

Charge excitation intensity peaks at the magnetic transition temperature.

Charge ordering is strongly related to the magnetic order.

Abstract

An anisotropic Kondo semiconductor CeOs$_2$Al$_{10}$ exhibits an unusual antiferromagnetic order at rather high transition temperature $T_0$ of 28.5 K. Two possible origins of the magnetic order have been proposed so far, one is the Kondo coupling of the hybridization between the conduction ($c$) and the $4f$ states and the other is the charge-density wave/charge ordering along the orthorhombic $b$ axis. To clarify the origin of the magnetic order, we have investigated the electronic structure of hole- and electron-doped CeOs$_2$Al$_{10}$ [Ce(Os$_{1-y}$Re$_y$)$_2$Al$_{10}$ and Ce(Os$_{1-x}$Ir$_x$)$_2$Al$_{10}$, respectively] by using optical conductivity spectra along the $b$ axis. The intensity of the $c$-$f$ hybridization gap at $\hbar\omega\sim50$ meV continuously decreases from $y=0.10$ to $x=0.12$ via $x=y=0$. The intensity of the charge excitation observed at $\hbar\omega\sim20$ meV has the maximum at $x=y=0$ as similar with the doping dependence of $T_{\rm 0}$. The fact that the charge excitation is strongly related to the magnetic order strengthens the possibility of the charge density wave/charge ordering as the origin of the magnetic order.