Magnetic, transport, and thermal properties of $\delta$-phase UZr${}_2$

Abstract

Alloys of hexagonal $\delta$-phase UZr${}_2$ have been synthesized and studied by means of heat capacity, magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, thermoelectric power, thermal conductivity measurements, for the first time, at temperatures from 1.8 to 300 K and in magnetic fields up to 8 T. The weak temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility and the small value of both Seebeck (0.75 $\mu$V/K at room temperature) and of the Sommerfeld coefficient (13.5 mJ mol${}^{-1}$ K${}^{-2}$) point to 5$f$-electrons in this material having a delocalized nature. The electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance indicate the presence of significant electronic disorder in $\delta$-UZr${}_2$, consistent with the disorder in its crystal structure. Density functional theory calculations have been performed and compared to experimental results.

arXiv commentAccepted by Philosophical Magazine Letters

References in corpus (8)

• Spontaneously polarized half-gapped superconductivity
• Nature of the 5f states in actinide metals
• Thermal and transport properties of U3Si2
• Angle-resolved photoemission study of USb2: the 5f band structure
• Measurement of Two Low-Temperature Energy Gaps in the Electronic Structure of Antiferromagnetic USb2 Using Ultrafast Optical Spectroscopy
• Magneto-Resistance in the Two-Channel Anderson Lattice
• Variations of magnetic properties of UGa2 under pressure
• Kondo Physics in a Rare Earth Ion with Well Localized 4f Electrons