Quantum critical behaviour in the CePd₂Si₂/CeNi₂Ge₂ system

Abstract

We have explored the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in the related heavy fermion metals CePd₂Si₂ and CeNi₂Ge₂ as a function of hydrostatic pressure. The normal state resistivity of the antiferromagnet CePd2Si2 near the critical pressure, at which magnetic order disappears, varies as ρ ∼ T^χ(1:1 < χ < 1:4) over nearly two orders of magnitude in temperature up to about 30 K. This anomalous form for the resistivity appears to defy not only Fermi-liquid theory, but also simple phenomenological models for the effect of spin fluctuations close to a quantum critical point. An analogous unconventional behaviour is observed in the ambient pressure resistivity of the electronically and structurally equivalent, non-magnetic metal CeNi₂Ge₂. At pressures above 15 kbar, a new and unexpected superconducting transition appears in CeNi₂Ge₂ below 220 mK, which rises to higher temperatures with increasing pressure, reaching 400 mK at 26 kbar.