Dramatic change of optical properties at a quantum critical point in the heavy fermion system

Optical properties of have been studied via infrared spectroscopy. For x>0.3, a hump in the optical conductivity σ₁ is observed at about 0.2 eV, resulting from strong hybridization between conduction electrons and Ce 4-f electronic states. For x0.3, in contrast, no such hump is observed. The low frequency plasmon indicating the existence of heavy particles is also observed below coherence temperature T^* for x>0.3.