Magnetic specific heat and magnetoresistance of URhSi

Abstract

Specific heat of a single crystalline URhSi was measured by a relaxation method in a temperature range 0.3–25 K in magnetic fields up to 8 T applied along the two of the principal axes. The low-temperature specific heat exponentially decays with magnetic field. The decay is much faster in fields applied along the easy magnetization direction (the c-axis) than for the hard axis (the a-axis) case. A strong upturn in c p / T versus T below 0.6 K that disappears with application of magnetic field is observed suggesting possible magnetic or superconducting phase transition at lower temperatures. The electrical resistivity in the vicinity of the ferromagnetic phase temperature is found to be reduced by more than 50% upon application of magnetic field of 8 T applied along the c-axis. URhSi represent an itinerant ferromagnetic system with influence of spin fluctuations.