Magnetic excitations observed by means of inelastic neutron scattering in polycrystalline

Abstract

Neutron scattering measurements have been performed with time-of-flight spectrometers on an polycrystal. The spectra show clearly the presence of magnetic excitations and a gap at around 14 meV. At low temperature, two broad signals , one asymmetric, the other one of Lorentzian shape, are well defined. After subtracting the phonon contribution, the former signal is further decomposed into a sharp 15.5 meV peak and a broader 20 meV peak. The 15.5 meV peak behaves similarly to that of the exciton at 14.5 meV for as regards both the Q- and T-dependencies. The 20 meV peak was identified as manifesting a transition from a localized Kondo singlet with a gap to a magnetic state. With decreasing temperature, the gap disappears and the scattering becomes quasi-elastic, like for the metallic Kondo system. The second signal, centred at 37 meV, was assigned previously to a crystal-field excitation. However, the observed behaviour is anomalous, indicating a shift of the intensity from the lower peaks to the higher peak, suggesting a change in the -value due to lattice distortion.