Itinerant spin fluctuations in antiferromagnetic heavy-fermion system U<sub>2</sub>Zn<sub>17</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

We report an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of the heavy-fermion system U2Zn17. Covering the energy range from 0.1 to 10meV, we document a continuum of magnetic scattering localized in reciprocal space around magnetic Bragg peaks. In particular, no coherent spin-wave excitation are apparent for T=0.3 K and E>0.1meV, despite long-range antiferromagnetic order for T<TN=9.7K with an ordered moment of μ=0.8μΒ/U. At elevated temperature well above TN, the spectrum remains mostly unchanged though broadened in reciprocal space. U2Zn17 thus represents a unique model system that has no regime of coherent spin waves as in a collinear insulating AFM. Our comprehensive neutron scattering data motivates a DFT+DMFT calculation to quantitatively address the strong correlation effect, which also gives rise to the large Sommerfeld coefficient γ~200mJ/(mole K2) in the ordered state.

*This work was supported as part of the Institute for Quantum Matter, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award No. DE-SC0019331.

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Presenters

  • Yishu Wang

    • Johns Hopkins University

Authors

  • Yishu Wang

    • Johns Hopkins University

  • Hyowon Park

    • University of Illinois at Chicago
    • Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago
    • University of Illinois, Chicago

  • Daniel Pajerowski

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Andrei Savici

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Jose A. Rodriguez-Rivera

    • National Institute of Standard and Technology
    • Center for Neutron Research, NIST
    • NIST
    • NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology
    • NIST Center for Neutron Research

  • Zachary Fisk

    • University of California, Irvine
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Irvine

  • Collin Leslie Broholm

    • Johns Hopkins University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, The Johns Hopkins University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Matter, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
    • Institute for Quantum Matter and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University
    • Physics, The Johns Hopkins University