Charles Explorer logo
🇬🇧

Quantum Critical Behavior and Superconductivity in new multi-site Cerium Heavy Fermion Compound Ce3PtIn11

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2016

Abstract

We discuss the results of thermodynamic and transport measurements at ambient and under hydrostatic pressure of the recently discovered heavy fermion superconductor Ce3PtIn11. At p = 0 superconductivity emerges in the complex antiferromagnetic state below T-c = 0.32 K.

Both phenomena coexist in a wide range of the p T phase diagram. The critical pressure where T-N -> 0 and T-c is maximum equals p(c) = 1.3 GPa.

Here, the resistivity follows rho(T) proportional to T-n with n = 0.90 +/- 0.05 suggesting a local moment-type of quantum critical point. The presence of a maximum structure in the susceptibility and the unusual pressure dependence of T-c hint to an understanding of properties of Ce3PtIn11 in the view of distinct different Kondo screened sublattices.

Therefore, we analyze the magnetic entropy S-mag within the spin-1/2 Kondo model while accounting for the fact that Ce3PtIn11 unit cell possesses two inequivalent Ce-sites, Ce1 and Ce2. We employ an extreme case scenario of non-interacting sublattices where the Ce1-sublattice is paramagnetic and only Ce2-sublattice orders magnetically and discussed its consequences.