Jahn‐Teller Transition in PrCu2

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Abstract
Previous specific heat measurements 1) on PrCu 2 indicated that below 7 K the two lowest lying singlet states of the 3H4 manifold of Pr3+ spontaneously increase their splitting due to a Jahn‐Teller effect. PrCu 2 has an orthorhombic structure which can be viewed as a distortion of the hexagonal AlB 2 structure. Further measurements on single crystals yield the following results: Large anisotropies are observed in the magnetic susceptibility, the electric resistivity and the elastic constants. At the transition the susceptibility shows relatively small anomalies, while marked anomalies are observed in the resistivity and thermal conductivity. The anisotropy of the resistivity remains unchanged through the transition, contrary to what one would expect from single ion anisotropic Coulomb charge scattering. Ultrasonic measurements above the transition temperature show softening of certain shear modes, and thermal expansion measurements down to 1,5 K show that the crystal distorts below 10 K.

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