Pressure-Induced Superconductivity in Antiferromagnet CePd₅Al₂

Abstract

A layered compound CePd 5 Al 2 , which is an analog of a heavy fermion superconductor NpPd 5 Al 2 , is found to be an antiferromagnet with an easy-axis along the tetragonal [001] direction but becomes superconductive in the pressure region from 9 to 12 GPa, with the superconducting transition temperature, T sc = 0.57 K and the upper critical field at 0 K, H c2 (0) = 2.5 kOe, at 10.8 GPa. The quasi-two dimensional Fermi surfaces are also theoretically calculated for CePd 5 Al 2 on the basis of the 4 f -itinerant band model.