Zero-field ambient-pressure quantum criticality in the stoichiometric non-fermi liquid system cerhbi

Abstract

We present the spin dynamics study of a stoichiometric non-Fermi liquid (NFL) system CeRhBi, using low-energy inelastic neutron scattering (INS) and muon spin relaxation (μSR) measurements. It shows evidence for an energy-temperature (E=T) scaling in the INS dynamic response and a time-field (t=Hη) scaling of the μSR asymmetry function indicating a quantum critical behavior in this compound. The E=T scaling reveals a local character of quantum criticality consistent with the power-law divergence of the magnetic susceptibility, logarithmic divergence of the magnetic heat capacity and T-linear resistivity at low temperature. The occurrence of NFL behavior and local criticality over a very wide dynamical range at zero field and ambient pressure without any tuning in this stoichiometric heavy fermion compound is striking, making CeRhBi a model system amenable to in-depth studies for quantum criticality. ©2018 The Physical Society of Japa