Low temperature behavior of the heavy Fermion Ce3Co4Sn13

TL;DR

This paper investigates the low-temperature properties of Ce3Co4Sn13, a heavy fermion compound, using neutron scattering techniques to understand its magnetic behavior and quantum criticality potential.

Contribution

It provides neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering data clarifying the magnetic state and spin fluctuations of Ce3Co4Sn13 at low temperatures.

Findings

No magnetic scattering below 0.8 K

Consistent with 1.2 K Kondo spin fluctuation energy scale

Supports nonmagnetic heavy fermion behavior

Abstract

The compound Ce3Co4Sn13 is an extremely heavy cubic heavy fermion system with a low temperature electronic specific heat of order ~4 J/mol-K2. If the compound is nonmagnetic, it would be one of the heaviest nonmagnetic Ce-based heavy fermions reported to date and therefore would be expected to lie extremely close to a quantum critical point. However, a broad peak of unknown origin is observed at 0.8 K in the specific heat and magnetic susceptibility, suggesting the possibility of antiferromagnetic order. We present neutron diffraction data from polycrystalline samples which do not show any sign of magnetic scattering below 0.8 K. In addition, we present inelastic neutron scattering data from a single crystal sample which is consistent with the 1.2 K energy scale for Kondo spin fluctuations determined from specific heat measurements.