A new ternary magnetically ordered heavy fermion compound Pr2Rh3Ge: magnetic, electronic and thermodynamic properties

Abstract

The results of the magnetic, electron transport, heat capacity and heat conduction measurements on the new rhombohedral ternary compound Pr2Rh3Ge have been investigated. The synthesized polycrystalline compound was found to crystallize in the ternary ordered variant of the cubic Laves phase -type of structure with the space group Rm, as previously reported. Pr2Rh3Ge exhibits a ferromagnetic behaviour below K, which was found to be unstable in low applied magnetic fields, revealing characteristics usually attributed to the long-range order. In the entire paramagnetic region electrical resistivity shows monotonous metallic conductivity character. We estimated that the Sommerfeld coefficient γ = 315 mJ/Pr-mol · of Ge is very large with comparison to ordinary metals which indicate the existence of heavy fermion behaviour of itinerant charge carriers at low temperatures or enhanced density of the quasi-particle state at the Fermi level. The crucial role of the crystalline electric field effects on the ground state properties of (J = 4) has been also observed. We think that the heavy fermion behaviour in Ge results from the dynamic low-lying crystal-field fluctuations, since there is no sign of Kondo effect in electrical resistivity and no enhancement of the slope S(T)/T in thermoelectric power data at low temperatures. It suggests that the conduction electrons at the Fermi level does not correlate with the 4f2 states of atoms and hence there is no place for a typical spin Kondo effect, as it is commonly observed in Ce- and Yb-based heavy fermion systems.