Influence of Substitutions on the Low-Temperature Behaviour of CePd3

Abstract

In the last decade considerable attention has been given to the characterization of the ground state of intermediate-valent Ce compounds of which CePd3 is a well-established example. Like in most Ce compounds also in CePd3 the intrinsic low-temperature magnetic properties are masked by the magnetic contribution of an inevitably present, small fraction (~ 1 %) of trivalent Ce ions. By combining magnetization data at 4.2 K in fields up to 35 T with susceptibility measurements as a function of temperature we have established recently1,2 that the susceptibility of CePd3 exhibits an intrinsic upturn at low temperatures. With the purpose to get information on the nature of this upturn we have started to study quasibinaries based on CePd3 in a similar fashion i.e. derive the intrinsic properties by combining high-field magnetization and low-temperature susceptibility measurements. We have determined the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of all compounds which are subjects of our magnetic studies in order to further characterize the samples and to be able to compare our samples with those of others, but also with the aim to investigate the possible connection between anomalies in resistivity and susceptibility. Previously we have reported results on the systems (Ce,Y)Pd3 and Ce(Pd,Pt)3 3. In this paper results on (Ce,La)Pd3, Ce(Pd,Ni)3 and Ce(Pd,Ag)3 are presented.