skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Transport and tunneling measurements on thin films of heavy fermion compounds and related systems

Miscellaneous ·
OSTI ID:7302821

High quality thin films of CeAl[sub 3], UBe[sub 13], and CeCu[sub 6] were prepared and used in magnetotransport experiments. The hexagonal crystal structure preferentially oriented with the c axis perpendicular to the Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] substrate. The measured resistivity of the films had the same behavior as that reported by other investigators for polycrystalline CeAl[sub 3], except for a sharper slope change at 6 K. Above 6 K, the magnetoresistance was isotropic, negative, and displayed H/T scaling. Scaling failed abruptly just below 6 K, and anisotropy began at the same temperature, demonstrating that only above 6 K is the scattering in CeAl[sub 3] similar to the scattering from a system of noninteracting Kondo ions. The resistivity maxima may represent a boundary in the (H,T) plane between coherent and incoherent behavior of the CeAl[sub 3] carriers. Between 1.8 K and 3.8 K, the positive magnetoresistance was proportional to (H/T)[sup 2], and also obeyed Kohler scaling. With the magnetic field in the CeAl[sub 3] basal plane the magnetoresistance remained negative until temperature was below 2 K. High-field Hall measurements in CeAl[sub 3] showed that the Hall resistivity reached its maximum value at a magnetic field B[sup *] = [kappa][sub B]T/g[mu][sub B] for temperatures above about 4K. Below 4 K, the same temperature at which H/T scaling began in magnetoresistance, the saturation field for the Hall resistivity increased as temperature decreased. The magnetoresistance and Hall measurements show the development of coherent behavior of the CeAl[sub 3] carriers between 4 K and 6 K. Hall measurements on a UBe[sub 13] film showed similar behavior to CeAl[sub 3], with the saturation field for the Hall resistivity beginning to increase below about 2 K. Hall measurements on a CeCu[sub 6] film did not show this behavior. The spin-orbit scattering rate in the superconducting portion of the film was found to be not greatly different from that in thin Al films.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge, MA (United States)
OSTI ID:
7302821
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English