Ferromagnetic quantum critical behavior in heavy-fermion compounds CeTi1−xNixGe3

Abstract

The measurements on magnetization ( M ), resistivity ( ρ ) and specific heat ( C ) were carried out for the ferromagnetic CeTi ${}_{1-x}$ Ni _x Ge _3 (0.0 $\leqslant $ x $\leqslant $ 0.45) system. It was found that the Curie temperature, T _C , decreases with increasing Ni content, x , and reaches zero kelvin near a critical content x _cr = 0.44. A new phase diagram is constructed based on these measurements. The non-Fermi liquid (nFL) behavior in ρ ( T ), and $\mathrm{log}$ ( T _0 / T ) relationship in C / T in the samples near x _cr , demonstrate that strong spin fluctuation emerges in these samples, indicating that they are near a quantum critical point (QCP). Our results indicate that CeTi ${}_{1-x}$ Ni _x Ge _3 may provide another platform to study exotic quantum phenomena near ferromagnetic QCP.

Keywords

• heavy fermion compound
• ferromagnetic kondo-lattice
• quantum critical point
• 71.27.+a
• 74.40.Kb
• 75.40.-s