The heat capacity of PrPd3 in magnetic fields

Abstract

The specific heat C(T) of polycrystalline PrPd3 has been measured down to 0.37 K in magnetic fields Hext up to 8 T. Two clear peaks, T1 and T2, were observed in zero field at 0.88 and 0.77 K, respectively. T1 increases very slightly with increasing Hext initially up to 2 T, and decreases rapidly over 5 T. On the other hand, the peak at T2 weakens with the increase of Hext and disappears around 3 T. The value of C(T)/T in 0 T is almost constant below 0.7 K with an extremely large one. By applying Hext, C(T)/T at 0.5 K gradually decreases to 5.5 J/mol K2 in 8 T. The nuclear contribution to C(T) is not apparent in the present C(T) even in the fields. The giant C(T)/T at low temperatures indicates presumably that PrPd3 is a Kondo system similar to the diluted system of Pr in Pd. The effect of quadrupole interaction as one possibility might be responsible to the characteristic behaviors of the giant C (T)/T and the Hext-dependence of T1.