Low temperature specific heat and a.c. susceptibility of TmAl 2

Abstract

We present measurements of the specific heat between 75 mK and 30 K and the a.c. susceptibility, both in zero and non-zero magnetic field, from 1.1 K to 149 K for the intermetallic cubic Laves phase compound TmAl 2. In zero magnetic field a single transition is observed at 3.4 K, while in a small magnetic field another phase transition at 2.7 K appears. We have obtained a set of crystal field parameters which gives a good agreement between the experimental and calculated specific heat at the lowest and highest temperatures and is consistent with available Mössbauer data.