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Abstract

We report on measurements of the specific heat and transport properties (resistivity, heat conductivity and thermopower) of dilute (La1−x Ce x )Al2 alloys withx≦0.04 between 0.3 and 10 K. The specific heat experiments were extended to a magnetic field of 47 kØe; the transport measurements were performed on single crystals. For Ce concentrations less than 0.5 a/o Kondo type single impurity behavior was observed for all quantities under investigation. A mean Kondo temperature T¯K=(0.36±0.06)K was obtained from the “S=1/2 exchange model” using our own data taken in the normal as well as in the superconducting state and data from the literature. Whereas neither the mean free path nor interimpurity correlations were significantly reflected in the specific heat, they obscured the transport properties above 0.5 a/o. The influence of crystal field excitation and band structure effects on the experimental results is also discussed.