Specific heat and electronic transport properties of medium heavy-fermion compoundU2Rh2In

Abstract

We report on measurements of the temperature dependent specific heat, resistivity, Seebeck and Hallcoefficients of U2Rh2In. This compound does not order magnetically down to 1.5 Kand is characterized by an enhanced electronic-heat coefficientγ≈130 mJ/mol U K2 at 2 K. The magneticresistivity shows a T3/2 law below 4 K and a broad maximum atTmaxρ = 55 K. The latter refers to the onset of coherence between U ions. The applicationof pressures up to 19 kbar diminishes the contribution of the spin fluctuationto the resistivity, but does not significantly change the position of theresistivity maximum. Thermopower is characterized by a deep minimum of−30 µV K−1 at 10 K, followed by a sign change at 45 K. The Hall coefficient shows a maximum at∼Tmaxρ and is dominated by skew scattering. At 2 K, the ordinary Hall coefficientR0≈9.65 × 10−10 m3 C−1 corresponds in a one-band model to a charge carrier density of 1.33 holes/formulaunit. The effective mass of the carriers at low temperatures is estimated to be55me.