Crystal-field excitations and model calculations of CeTe 2

Abstract

We have observed in recent inelastic neutron scattering experiments that CeTe 2 exhibits two well-defined crystal-field excitations centered at 8 and 18.5 meV above the ground crystal-field level, respectively, and another one at 280 meV which is attributed to the 2 F 5/2 → 2 F 7/2 intermultiplet transition. These experimental findings clearly demonstrate that the Ce 4f electrons in CeTe 2 are localized. Using crystal-field parameters obtained from the analysis of the crystal-field excitations, we have used a single-ion crystal-field model with mean-field approximation to calculate magnetization and heat capacity both with and without external fields, and have obtained results that are in good agreement with the experimental data.