Band structure calculations of heavy fermion YbSbPd and YbSbNi

Abstract

Dhar et al. [J. Phys. F 18, L41 (1988); and Proceedings of the International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems Sendai, Japan, 1992 (Plenum, New York, 1987)] have recently measured the low-temperature specific heat of YbSbPd and YbSbNi. Their measurements yield large values for the specific heat coefficient (1384 states/Ry cell for YbSbPd and 865 states/Ry cell for YbSbNi), and suggest a magnetic transition at low temperature. With a view to understand the ground state of these compounds, we have performed self-consistent scalar relativistic linear muffin-tin orbital band structure calculations. Our paramagnetic calculations for YbSbPd and YbSbNi give the density of the states at Fermi level to be 82.94 and 27.96 states/Ry cell, respectively. These give enhancement factors of 16.7 and 30.1 for YbSbPd and YbSbNi. We present results of our calculations of the band structure as well as the Stoner I parameter for these compounds.