Magnetic and thermal properties of CeCu

Abstract

Magnetic susceptibility, high field magnetization and specific heat measurements on CeCu are presented. An antiferromagnetic transition is observed at T_N = 3.13 K, with some evidences of low dimensionality of the order parameter. The saturation magnetization, M_s = 1.16μ_B, implies that the crystalline electric field (CEF) ground state doublet is strongly magnetic, in agreement with the low temperature Curie constant C = 0.46 emu K/mol. In the high temperature limit (T > 50 K), the obtained Curie constant is C = 0.65 emu K/mol, which suggests an overall CEF splitting larger than 200 K. The entropy gain at the magnetic transition is 72% of the expected R ln 2. The missing entropy is related to a specific heat anomaly with a maximum at ∼ 13 K, which is attributed to magnetic fluctuations in the Ce chains. The transition temperature and the high temperature broad maximum in the specific heat are weakly affected by an applied magnetic field of 1 T.