Magnetic, electronic transport and thermodynamic properties of Ce5CuSn3

The magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, thermoelectric power, and specific heat of the intermetallic ternary compound Ce5CuSn3 have been measured. An anomaly related to an antiferromagnetic phase transition is observed at T-N approximate to 3.5 K in both the susceptibility, resistivity and magnetoresistance. The specific heat exhibits a maximum around T-N with a reduced entropy compared to R In2. The linear coefficient of the specific heat in the temperature range 10-20 K amounts to 270 mJ/(K-2 mol Ce), indicative of a moderate heavy-fennion behaviour in Ce5CuSn3. A positive maximum in the thermoelectric power observed at 5 K correlates well with the Kondo energy scale k(B) T-K deduced from the specific heat data. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.