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Title: Nuclear magnetic resonance in the superconducting states of two heavy fermion superconductors, CeCu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/ and UBe/sub 13/

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6856710

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments were carried out in two heavy fermion superconductors, CeCu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/ and U/sub 1-x/Th/sub x/Be/sub 13/ (x = 0,0.0331). The unusual normal state and superconducting state behavior of CeCu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/ and UBe/sub 13/ has recently been discovered. Both compounds exhibit enormous values of the normal state low temperature magnetic susceptibility chi and the linear specific heat coefficient ..gamma... Standard analyses of chi and ..gamma.. results in a two order of magnitude enhancement of the conduction electron mass, but the ratio chi/..gamma.. retains a value appropriate to a free-electron gas. It is of interest to obtain as much microscopic information as possible. In one of the CeCu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/ superconducting specimens, the observed temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T/sub 1/ (T) is consistent with a conventional quasi-particle excitation spectrum below the superconducting transition temperature T/sub c/. In the other superconducting CeCu/sub 2/Si/sub 2/ sample, the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate decreases drastically just below T/sub c/ without the apparent enhancement observed in the first sample. The spin lattice relaxation rate in UBe/sub 13/ varies approximately as T/sup 3/ well below the transition temperature T/sub c/., This behavior is consistent with a class of anisotropic pairing models for which the superconducting gap vanishes along lines on the Fermi surface.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Riverside (USA)
OSTI ID:
6856710
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English