Abstract
Many current research efforts in strongly correlated systems focus on the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity. Here we report on coexistence of both cooperative ordered states in recently discovered stoichiometric and fully inversion symmetric heavy fermion compound Ce3PdIn11 at ambient pressure. Thermodynamic and transport measurements reveal two successive magnetic transitions at T1 = 1.67 K and TN = 1.53 K into antiferromagnetic type of ordered states. Below Tc = 0.42 K the compound enters a superconducting state. The large initial slope of dBc2/dT ≈ – 8.6 T/K indicates that heavy quasiparticles form the Cooper pairs. The origin of the two magnetic transitions and the coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity is briefly discussed in the context of the coexistence of the two inequivalent Ce-sublattices in the unit cell of Ce3PdIn11 with different Kondo couplings to the conduction electrons.
Highlights
The vast majority of cerium intermetallic compounds investigated to date have been compounds which have only one crystallographic site for the constant (hybridization) between 4f (Ce)-ion
RKKY exchange interaction, and the demagnetizing on-site Kondo interaction. This competition is well described by the Doniach diagram[1]; the ground state depends on the relative value of the respective RKKY and Kondo energies, kBT RKKY ∼ N FJc2f and kBT K ∼ exp[1/|N FJ cf |], with NF being the conduction band density of states at the Fermi level and Jcf the coupling constant between 4f (Ce) and conduction electrons
Beyond that the data reveal that the magnetic ground state exhibits a reduced magnetic moment and suggest a heavy fermion superconducting state
Summary
The vast majority of cerium intermetallic compounds investigated to date have been compounds which have only one crystallographic site for the Ce-ion. The value of Jcf itself depends critically on the local environment of the 4f electron This aspect plays a crucial role in compounds exhibiting inequivalent crystallographic Ce-sites per unit cell constituting different. The field of Kondo lattice compounds with multiple distinct local moments (4f (Ce)) per unit cell is still uncharted terrain This despite the fact that interplay between different ground states, which in these compounds might come from interaction between sublattices with different electronic or magnetic order, often give rise to new interesting phenomena. Recent theoretical work of Benlarga et al examines the question of a Kondo lattice with two distinct Kondo ions[6] Their model describes a unit cell with two inequivalent Ce-sites. In a broader sense one can speculate that under certain conditions the HF sublattice becomes superconducting while the second sublattice remains magnetically ordered
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