Specific heat of magnetic Ce alloys within a two-component model

A.M. LOBOS, A.A. ALIGIA, AND J.G. SERENI

EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL B - CONDENSED MATTER

SPRINGER

Año: 2004 vol. 41 p. 289 - 295

1434-6028

Abstract. We propose a description of the electronic properties of Ce alloys as an inhomogeneous mixtureof two components: one containing magnetic Ce ions with an RKKY interaction JH between them, andthe other described as a collection of Kondo impurities with exchange interaction JK. Both JH and JK areassumed to depend on a composition parameter X, with a Gaussian distribution around a value X0 (nearto the expectation value of X), related to the experimental composition parameter x of the alloy. When theconcentration of the Kondo impurities is large, the specific heat C displays non-Fermi liquid behavior overa wide temperature range. The main qualitative features of C/T as a function of temperature T observedin several Ce alloys are reproduced using simple JH(X) and JK(X) dependences.