Low temperature specific heat of CePt2-derived compounds

Abstract Alloying Ir or Rh on the Pt-sites in antiferromagnetic CePt 2 results in a decrease of T N . For x >0.25 in Ce(Pt 1− x M x ) 2 (M = Ir, Rh) no magnetic order is detected, but C T increases with decreasing temperature below 10 K. The electronic part of the specific heat at temperatures higher than 10 K, γ HT , shows a maximum dependent on the concentration x . The dilution of Ce in (Ce x Pt 1 − x )Pt 2 also results in a suppression of the magnetic order and an enhanced γ HT . In the latter case the enhanced γ HT can be explained by a transfer of degrees of freedom from the magnetic ordering to the screening process.