Magnetic Properties of the Ce(Pd1−x Cu x )3 System

CePd3 is an intermediate valence compound with a variety of interesting electronic properties resulting from the partially filled f-shell electrons of cerium atom. Substitution on cerium site with Cu causes a dramatic change in the electronic behavior of the compound. In this work, Ce(Pd1−x Cu x )3 system, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.133, with x = 0, 0.017, 0.033, and 0.133, has been synthesized by arc melting method. The powder X-ray diffraction reveals that the compounds crystallize in AuCu3-type structure where copper enters the lattice substitutionally. Magnetic susceptibility measurements as a function of temperature have been carried out on these alloys which show that with increasing copper content x, the alloys Ce(Pd1−x Cu x )3 show a smooth crossover from the weak temperature dependence of CePd3 to a Curie-Weiss behavior for higher concentrations of x. The value of μ eff increases with x, while the paramagnetic Curie temperature shows a large reduction with increase in x; this suggests a very rapid decrease in the Kondo temperature with x.