Anomalous specific heat and nuclear spin relaxation in Al-transition metal alloys

A mechanism involving dislocation pinning by impurities is proposed to explain the anomalous lattice specific heat and the nuclear spin—lattice relaxation in Al—transition metal alloys.     

Magnetic susceptibility of (La,Ce) Al2 alloys

The low-field magnetic susceptibility of (La, Ce)Al₂ alloys with 1–20 at-% Ce was measured between 0.04 and 4 K. Up to 1.5 at-% Ce the impurity contribution to the susceptibility exhibits features which can be described in terms of a combined influence of the crystalline electric field and the Kondo effect. At very low temperatures the onset of interactions between the Ce impurities is indicated. The impurity coupling interactions determine the dependence on temperature and concentration of the more concentrated alloys. For the dilute alloys the impurity magnetization was determined from measurements of the susceptibility in magnetic fields up to 10 kOe. The magnetization as a function of temperature and field shows a typical anomaly which has been observed also in other Kondo systems.     

Low temperature specific heat of Cr-Fe-Si alloys

Low temperature specific heats of Cr-Fe-Si alloys with 3 at. % Si were investigated between 1.4°–4.2°K. The electronic specific heat coefficient γ essentially varies with transition metal electron concentration ( e/a) in the same manner as the Cr-Fe alloys but with the high γ peak slightly shifted to lower e/a. The shift of γ peak suggests transfer of electrons from Si atoms to the 3d magnetic subband of the transition elements.     

Anomalous specific heat of CeB6

Specific heat measurement of CeB₆ has been performed over the temperature region 1.6–77 K. Particularly the low-temperature anomaly, which consists of a sharp peak and a broad satellite, was examined in applied magnetic field up to 1.8 T. The observed field dependence and the entropy consideration reveal that both the two peaks are related to some intrinsic phase transitions which involve a complicated process of magnetic ordering. In the light of the reported data on magnetic properties, the anomalous features of this compound are discussed in terms of the unusual exchange interaction which differs remarkably in magnitude between the ground state and the excited state.     

Anomalous specific heat of dipolar spin glasses and ferroelectrics

We show that for a random Ising model with 1/R³ interactions, the probability distribution of molecular field p(H) goes to zero as H tends to zero. We suggest that p(H) ～ H^{$\text{1}\text{2}$} for small H. Monte Carlo calculations of p(H) for the model are performed with results consistent with this suggestion. These results are used to explain the anomalous T^{$\text{3}\text{2}$} specific heat observed in alkali halides containing off-center ions, and in ferroelectrics.     

Ni-Zr amorphous alloys: Low temperature specific heat and superconductivity

The specific heat (C_p) of the amorphous alloys Ni_100-xZr_x for x = 75, 65, 55 and 35 was measured from 0.8K to 40K and the composition trends of the transition temperature T_c, the enhanced density of states at the Fermi level N_γ(_F) and the Debye temperatures θ_D(0), θ_D(T) established. For the three superconducting compositions (x=75, 65, 55) N_γ(E_F increases rapidly with increasing [Zr] in agreement with the trend in amorphous Cu-Zr alloys. However, for the Zr-Ni alloys the bare density of states $\text{N}{}_0\text{(E}{}_{\mathrm{F}}\text{) =}\text{N}{}_{\mathrm{\gamma }}\text{(E}{}_{\mathrm{F}}\text{)}\text{(1 + λ}{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{)}$ increases strongly with [Zr] in contrast to the Zr-Cu alloys where it is reported to be almost constant. We conclude that for the Ni-Zr alloys the electron-ion matrix element <I²> decreases with increasing [Zr]. Other results are related to recent photoemission studies of these alloys.     

Thermal properties of dilute (La,Ce)Al2 alloys

We report on measurements of the specific heat and transport properties (resistivity, heat conductivity and thermopower) of dilute (La_1–x Ce _x )Al₂ alloys withx0.04 between 0.3 and 10 K. The specific heat experiments were extended to a magnetic field of 47 kØe; the transport measurements were performed on single crystals. For Ce concentrations less than 0.5 a/o Kondo type single impurity behavior was observed for all quantities under investigation. A mean Kondo temperature was obtained from the S=1/2 exchange model using our own data taken in the normal as well as in the superconducting state and data from the literature. Whereas neither the mean free path nor interimpurity correlations were significantly reflected in the specific heat, they obscured the transport properties above 0.5 a/o. The influence of crystal field excitation and band structure effects on the experimental results is also discussed.Work performed within the research program of the Sonderfor-schungsbereich 125—Aachen/Jülich/Köln.     

Low temperature specific heats of very dilute alloys of Ce in Al

Measurements of the specific heat of two alloys of Ce (0.00275 and 0.0121 at % Ce) in Al have been made in the region 0.3<T<3.8 K. Within the limits of detection (<1 ppm), the alloys contained no metallic impurities other than Ce and their homogeneity was checked by neutron activation analysis. For the alloys in their normal electronic states, the change/c was found to be 6±3 and 3.5±1.5mJ/at% K². The behavior of the alloys in their superconducting states (e.g.: the shift ofT _c with the concentration of Ce; the correlation betweenT _C/T_C0 andC/C ₀) indicates the existence of short-lived local moments associated with the Ce impurities.     

Kondo effect and impurity-impurity interaction in (La,Ce)B6 alloys

Measurements of the magnetic susceptibility between 0.03 and 300 K and of the magnetization between 0.05 and 10K for magnetic fields up to 60kOe have been used to investigate effects from the interaction between the conduction electrons and local magnetic moments in (La_1–x Ce _x )B₆ alloys (0.0007x0.10). For Ce concentrationsx<0.006 the data show Kondo-type single impurity behavior at low temperatures with a transition from a magnetic to a non-magnetic regime of the Ce ions. In the magnetic regime the impurity susceptibility follows a Curie-Weiss law, and in the non-magnetic regime it varies withT ². An external magnetic field gradually restores the free-ion behavior of the Ce impurities. For more concentrated alloys interactions between the impurities are observed. The RKKY interaction strength derived is more than two orders of magnitude smaller than in the Kondo systemCuFe. Values of thes–f exchange integral,J, estimated from both the Kondo effect and the RKKY interactions are in good agreement. The relatively high Kondo temperature, in spite of a smallJ, can be explained by a density-of-states argument. The influence of crystal field excitation on the susceptibility is also discussed.     

Electronic specific heat of gamma phase copper-aluminum alloys

The electronic specific heat of the γ₂- and δ-phases in the binary copper-aluminum system has been measured as a function of composition. A pronounced minimum is observed in the corresponding variation in the density-of-states at the Fermi level with electron/atom ratio. This supports the view that the electronic structure is determined by contact between the Fermi surface and the relevant Jones zone for the γ₂-phase and that zone overlap effects are significant for higher electron concentrations. The data for the δ-phase strongly suggest that its electronic structure is very similar to that of the γ₂-phase. Recent transport measurements on copper-aluminum alloys are interpreted in terms of the present results.     

Anomalous behavior of the specific heat and upper critical magnetic field in the superconducting single crystal La1.85Sr0.15CuO4

The specific heat and resistive upper critical magnetic field of the single crystal La_1.85Sr_0.15CuO₄ are investigated in the temperature range 2–50 K in magnetic fields up to 8 T for two directions of the magnetic field, parallel and normal to the ab crystalline plane. For both orientations a nonlinear (close to square root) magnetic field dependence of the mixed-state specific heat and a positive curvature of the temperature dependence of the upper critical magnetic field are observed. Neither of these anomalies is described by standard theories of superconductivity. Within the framework of the thermodynamic relations it is shown that in a type-II superconductor a relationship exists between the temperature dependence of the critical magnetic field and the field dependence of the specific heat. The anomalies observed in these phenomena are interrelated. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1386–1395 (October 1997)     

Anomalous resistivity in Nb-Ti alloys

The anomalous resistivity behaviour which we have observed in crystalline NbTi alloys is understood in the framework of Two Level Systems model proposed for amorphous materials. It is shown that the fluctuations associated with the ω phase instability is the most dominant scattering mechanism in Ti rich transition metal alloys.     

Low temperature specific heat of transition metals and alloys

The article reviews experimental results on the low temperature specific heat of the transition metals and their alloys. Particularly discussed are the variations of the electronic part on the basis of a complete compilation of measurements given.     

High pressure phase diagrams of binary lanthanide alloys between La,Ce and Pr

Abstract

In comparison with the “regular” binary alloy phase diagrams between “regular” trivalent lanthanide metals, binary intralanthanide alloys of Ce exhibit many irregularities typical for Ce under pressure due to its f electron delocalization. For comparison with the La-Ce and Ce-Pr high pressure phase diagrams also the more regular La-Pr data are presented for the pressure range up to 40GPa.     

Low temperature specific heat of Ni-Co and Ni-Fe alloys

Values of the low temperature specific heat of f.c.c. Ni-Co and Ni-Fe alloys have been determined in the 1.2–8 K range with a relative accuracy of 10^-3 and analysed to separate the electron, phonon, magnon and hyperfine terms. Results are in good agreement with former data^5–7 and with theory: Gomes' model⁴ of a d-d tight-binding scattering in the dilute case, Hasegawa's^12,13 CPA calculations are both consistent with experiments.