Anomalous magnetic transition in a disordered quasicrystal approximant with heavy-fermion nature

Quasicrystal approximant (CexY1-x)Cd6 (0 < x < 1) forms a network of corner-sharing octahedra. We report that (Ce0.8Y0.2)Cd6 exhibits an anomalous magnetic transition which can be classified neither into the conventional static magnetic ordering nor into spin glasses. The anomalous transition is characterized by the coexistence of a static order and a frequency-dependent sharp positive anomaly in the 3rd-harmonic susceptibility. Based on the investigation of the reference systems CeCd6 and (Ce0.05Y0.95)Cd6, we speculate that the anomalous transition could be induced by disorder in the possible frustrated Ce-network in the presence of the Kondo effect.
Comment: 5 figures