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Abstract:
The field of heavy-fermion physics emerged nearly four decades ago and has since remained one of the most prominent research directions in condensed-matter physics. Nonetheless, while significant progress has been made in unraveling heavy-fermion behavior and accompanying exotic phenomena, many questions remain. This issue can be advanced from two directions: comprehensive understanding of existing materials and discovery of novel systems. In this work, we propose a targeted method for discovery of uranium-based heavy-fermion materials by synthesis of complex intermetallic compounds with low mass percentage of uranium, high coordination number of uranium, and long overall shortest uranium bond length. We report the discovery and synthesis of the new complex uranium-based heavy-fermion material U23Hg88, which suggests this approach to be a reliable route for the targeted search of novel strongly correlated uranium-based materials. The Sommerfeld coefficient gamma = 630 mJ mol(U)(-1)K(-2) indicates extremely strong electronic correlations and places U23Hg88 among the heaviest uranium-based compounds. U23Hg88 orders antiferromagnetically below T-N = 2.2 K and displays a dual nature of the 5f electrons. This work will pave a way for a comprehensive understanding of heavy-fermion phenomena in general and uranium-based systems in particular.
