Low-temperature anomalies in magnetic, transport, and thermal properties of single-crystal CeRhSn with valence fluctuations

Magnetic, transport, thermal, and crystallographic properties are reported for single crystals of CeRhSn crystallizing in the hexagonal ZrNiAl-type structure. We found high anisotropy in both electrical resistivity (r a’5r c at 70 K! and magnetic susceptibility ( x c’10x a at 0.4 K!, which is atypical for a valence-fluctuating Ce compound. At low temperatures, r(T) and x(T) show power-law behaviors; r a(T)}T 1.5 and r c(T)}T, and x a}T 20.35 and x c}T 21.1 down to 0.4 K. These behaviors and the rather large residual resistivity were not affected by long-term annealing. On cooling fro m7Kt o 0.5 K, thespecific heat divided by temperature C/T increased as 2ln T and saturated to a rather large value of 0.2 J/mol K 2 . These experimental results are discussed in relation to the possible atomic disorder.