English

Relaxing Kondo screened Kramers-doublets in CeRhSi$_{3}$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2019-05-15 v1 Superconductivity

Abstract

CeRhSi3_{3} is a superconductor under pressure coexisting with a weakly antiferromagnetic phase characterized by a Bragg peak at q0\vec{q}_{0}=(\sim 0.2, 0, 0.5) (N. Aso et al. J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 310, 602 (2007)). The compound is also a heavy fermion material with a large specific heat coefficient γ\gamma=110 mJ \cdot mol1^{-1} \cdot K2^{-2} and a high Kondo temperature of TKT_{K}=50 K indicative that CeRhSi3_{3} is in a strongly Kondo screened state. We apply high resolution neutron spectroscopy to investigate the magnetic fluctuations in the normal phase, at ambient pressures, and at low temperatures. We measure a commensurate dynamic response centered around the Q\vec{Q}=(0, 0, 2) position that gradually evolves to H\sim 0.2 with decreasing temperature and/or energy transfers. The response is broadened both in momentum and energy and not reminiscent of sharp spin wave excitations found in insulating magnets where the electrons are localized. We parameterize the excitation spectrum and temperature dependence using a heuristic model utilizing the random phase approximation to couple relaxing Ce3+^{3+} ground state Kramers doublets with a Kondo-like dynamic response. With a Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) exchange interaction within the abab plane and an increasing single site susceptibility, we can qualitatively reproduce the neutron spectroscopic results in CeRhSi3_{3} and namely the trade-off between scattering at commensurate and incommensurate positions. We suggest that the antiferromagnetic phase in CeRhSi3_{3} is driven by weakly correlated relaxing localized Kramers doublets and that CeRhSi3_{3} at ambient pressures is on the border between a Rudderman-Kittel-Yosida antiferromagnetic state and a Kondo screened phase where static magnetism is predominately absent.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1902.10791,
  title  = {Relaxing Kondo screened Kramers-doublets in CeRhSi$_{3}$},
  author = {J. Pásztorová and A. Howell and M. Songvilay and P. M. Sarte and J. A. Rodriguez-Rivera and A. M. Arévalo-López and K. Schmalzl and A. Schneidewind and S. R. Dunsiger and D. K. Singh and C. Petrovic and R. Hu and C. Stock},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1902.10791},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

(11 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Physical Review B)