Electronic structure and magnetic properties of YbNi 4Cu compound

Abstract

We have found that YbNi 4Cu does not order magnetically down to 4 K. At temperatures over 100 K the magnetic susceptibility follows a Curie–Weiss law with the parameters θ p = - 113 K and μ eff = 4.8 μ B / f . u . This effective magnetic moment is close to the value expected for the 4f 13 configuration ( 4.54 μ B ) . The XPS valence band spectrum is compared with the results of ab initio calculations using the SPR-KKR-CPA method, where Yb(4f) states are treated as the semi-core states. The valence band is dominated by the Ni(3d) and Cu(3d) peaks. The X-ray photoemission spectroscopy corroborates that Yb is mainly in the trivalent state in the YbNi 4Cu compound.