Low-temperature phase diagram of YbBiPt

Abstract

Resistivity measurements are reported on the cubic heavy-fermion compound YbBiPt at ambient and hydrostatic pressures to ≊19 kbar and in magnetic fields to 1 T. The phase transition at Tc=0.4 K is identified by a sharp rise in resistivity. That feature is used to build low-temperature H-T and P-T phase diagrams. The phase boundary in the H-T plane follows the weak-coupling BCS expression remarkably well from Tc to Tc/4, while small hydrostatic pressure of ≊1 kbar suppresses the low-temperature phase entirely. These effects of hydrostatic pressure and magnetic field on the phase transition are consistent with an spin-density-wave (SDW) formation in a very heavy electron band at T=0.4 K. Outside of the SDW phase at low temperature, hydrostatic pressure increases the T2 coefficient of resistivity, signaling an increase in heavy-fermion correlations with hydrostatic pressure. The residual resistivity decreases with pressure, contrary to trends in other Yb heavy-fermion compounds.