Magnetic, thermodynamic, electronic, and transport properties ofCeNi4Al

The $\mathrm{Ce}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{4}\mathrm{Al}$ compounds have been studied using the magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, electrical resistivity and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The XPS experiments were supported by the theoretical calculations employing the TB LMTO method. The estimation of the hybridization, $\ensuremath{\Delta}$, between the $f$-level and the conduction states was based on the XPS measurements of the $\mathrm{Ce}(3d)$ states and revealed a small value of $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\approx}37\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{meV}$ accompanied by a nearly full $f$-occupancy $({n}_{f}\ensuremath{\approx}0.88)$. The temperature measurements of the dc susceptibility have shown paramagnetic behavior fulfilling the Curie-Weiss law with ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\mathrm{eff}}=0.6{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{\mathrm{B}}∕\mathrm{f.u}$. Experimental values of the specific heat coefficient $\ensuremath{\gamma}=29\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{mJK}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{mol}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and the Debye temperature ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{D}=315\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ have been obtained. The electrical resistivity measurements revealed a presence of a minimum at about $16\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$.