We report results of magnetic and transport measurements on single crystals of a new rare earth series RIr2Ga (R=La, Pr, Nd, Sm, and Gd through Tm). These compounds appear to crystallize in the triple-hexagonal Na3As structure with space group P63cm. Magnetic ordering temperatures show deviation from De Gennes scaling. These compounds are an interesting example of a quasi-2D structure in which there are anisotropic magnetic interactions. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

CeRhIn5 is a new heavy-electron material that crystallizes in a quasi-2D structure that can be viewed as alternating layers of CeIn3 and RhIn2 stacked sequentially along the tetragonal c axis. Application of hydrostatic pressure induces a first-order-like transition from an unconventional antiferromagnetic state to a superconducting state with T(c) = 2.1 K.

We report the observation of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCoIn5 at Tc = 2.3 K. When compared to the pressure-induced Tc of its cubic relative CeIn3 (Tc ∼ 200 mK), the Tc of CeCoIn5 is remarkably high. We suggest that this difference may arise from magnetically mediated superconductivity in the layered crystal structure of CeCoIn5.

Low temperature specific heat and thermal conductivity measurements on the ambient pressure heavy fermion superconductors CeIrIn5 and CeCoIn5 reveal power law temperature dependences of these quantities below T(c). The low temperature specific heat in both CeIrIn5 and CeCoIn5 includes T2 terms, consistent with the presence of nodes in the superconducting energy gap. The thermal conductivity data present a T-linear term consistent with the universal limit (CeIrIn5), and a low temperature T3 variation in the clean limit (CeCoIn5), also in accord with prediction for an unconventional superconductor with lines of nodes.

Superconductivity in the iron pnictides emerges from metallic parent compounds exhibiting intertwined stripe-type magnetic order and nematic order, with itinerant electrons suggested to be essential for both. Here we use x-ray and neutron scattering to show that a similar intertwined state is realized in semiconducting KFe_{0.8}Ag_{1.2}Te_{2} (K_{5}Fe_{4}Ag_{6}Te_{10}) without itinerant electrons. We find that Fe atoms in KFe_{0.8}Ag_{1.2}Te_{2} form isolated 2×2 blocks, separated by nonmagnetic Ag atoms. Long-range magnetic order sets in below T_{N}≈35  K, with magnetic moments within the 2×2 Fe blocks ordering into the stripe-type configuration. A nematic order accompanies the magnetic transition, manifest as a structural distortion that breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the lattice. The nematic orders in KFe_{0.8}Ag_{1.2}Te_{2} and iron pnictide parent compounds are similar in magnitude and in how they relate to the magnetic order, indicating a common origin. Since KFe_{0.8}Ag_{1.2}Te_{2} is a semiconductor without itinerant electrons, this indicates that local-moment magnetic interactions are integral to its magnetic and nematic orders, and such interactions may play a key role in iron-based superconductivity.

Electron spin resonance (ESR) experiments in YbRh2Si2 Kondo lattice (TK ≃ 25 K) at different field/frequencies (4.1 ≤ ν ≤ 34.4 GHz) and H⊥ c revealed: (i) a strong field dependent Yb3 + spin-lattice relaxation, (ii) a weak field and T-dependent effectiveg -value, (iii) a suppression of the ESR intensity beyond 15% of Lu-doping, and (iv) a strong sample and Lu-doping (≤ 15 %) dependence of the ESR data. These results suggest that the ESR signal in YbRh2Si2 may be due to a coupled Yb3 +-conduction electron resonant collective mode with a subtle field-dependent spins dynamic. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal conductivity and specific heat were measured in the superconducting state of the heavy-fermion material Ce(1-x)La(x)CoIn5. With increasing impurity concentration x, the suppression of T(c) is accompanied by the increase in residual electronic specific heat expected of a d-wave superconductor, but it occurs in parallel with a decrease in residual electronic thermal conductivity. This contrasting behavior reveals the presence of uncondensed electrons coexisting with nodal quasiparticles. An extreme multiband scenario is proposed, with a d-wave superconducting gap on the heavy-electron sheets of the Fermi surface and a negligible gap on the light, three-dimensional pockets.

Superconductivity evolves as functions of pressure or doping from charge-ordered phases in a variety of strongly correlated systems, suggesting that there may be universal characteristics associated with the competition between superconductivity and charge order in these materials. We present an inelastic light (Raman) scattering study of the structural changes that precede the pressure-tuned charge-density-wave (CDW) to superconductor transition in one such system, ZrTe3. In certain phonon bands, we observe dramatic linewidth reductions that accompany CDW formation, indicating that these phonons couple strongly to the electronic degrees of freedom associated with the CDW. The same phonon bands, which represent internal vibrations of ZrTe3 prismatic chains, are suppressed at pressures above ~10 kbar, indicating a loss of long-range order within the chains, specifically amongst intrachain Zr-Te bonds. These results suggest a distinct structural mechanism for the observed pressure-induced suppression of CDW formation and provide insights into the origin of pressure-induced superconductivity in ZrTe3.

We report a new family of Ce-based heavy-fermion compounds whose electronic specific heat coefficients range from about 400 to over 700mJ/mol-Ce K2. Crystals in this family form as CenTmIn3n-2m, where T = Rh or Ir, n = 1 or 2, and m = 1, with a tetragonal structure that can be viewed as m-layers of CeIn3 units stacked sequentially along the c-axis with intervening m-layers of TIn2. Ambient and high-pressure studies show that the quasi-2D layers of CeIn3 produce unconventional superconducting and magnetic ground states. This family should enable new understanding of the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity in heavy-fermion materials and more generally of why heavyfermion superconductivity prefers to develop in one structure type and not another. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Electron spin resonance (ESR) experiments at different fields or frequencies (4.1≤ν≤34.4 GHz) in the Kondo lattice (TK ≃25 K) YbRh2Si2 single-crystal compounds confirmed the observation of a single anisotropic Dysonian resonance with g⊥c ≅3.55 and no hyperfine components for 4.2≲T≲20 K. However, our studies differently reveal that (i) the ESR spectra for H⊥c show strong-field-dependent spin-lattice relaxation, (ii) a weak-field and temperature-dependent effective g value, (iii) a dramatic suppression of the ESR intensity beyond 15% of Lu doping, and (iv) a strong sample and Lu-doping (≤15%) dependence of the ESR data. These results suggest a different scenario where the ESR signal may be associated to a coupled Yb3+-conduction electron resonant collective mode with a strong bottleneck and dynamiclike behavior. © 2009 The American Physical Society.