Electronic and magnetic properties of quasi-skutterudite PrCo2Ga8 compound

Michael O. Ogunbunmi, Buyisiwe M. Sondezi, Harikrishnan S. Nair, André M. Strydom

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

PrCo2Ga8 is an orthorhombic quasi-skutterudite type compound which crystallizes in the CaCo2Al8 structure type, with space group Pbam (No. 55). The Pr3+ ion has a site symmetry of Cs which predicts a crystal electric field (CEF) level splitting into 9 singlets for J = 4. However, a phase transition at Tm = 1.28 K is observed in electrical resistivity and specific heat results and is reported in this paper. The electrical resistivity shows an upturn below Tm due to the superzone-gap formation. This transition is tuneable in fields and is suppressed to lower temperatures with applied magnetic fields. The electronic specific heat Cp(T)/T increases below Tm and reaches a value of 7.37 J/(mol K2) at 0.4 K. The Sommerfeld coefficient, γ extracted from the low temperature analysis of C4f(T)/T is 637 mJ/(mol K2) indicating a possible mass enhancement of the quasiparticles. The calculated entropy value of 3.05 J/(mol K) is recovered around Tm exhibiting almost 53% of Rln2, where R is the universal gas constant. Magnetic susceptibility results obeys the Curie-Weiss law for data above 100 K with an estimated effective magnetic moment, μeff = 3.37 μB/Pr and Weiss temperature, θp = −124 K.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)128-132
Number of pages5
JournalPhysica B: Condensed Matter
Volume536
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2018

Keywords

  • Heavy fermion behaviour
  • Kondo-like behaviour
  • PrCoGa
  • Praseodymium
  • Quasi-skutterudite
  • Superzone gap

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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