The effect of Au and Ni doping on the heavy fermion state of the Kondo lattice antiferromagnet CePtZn

We have probed the effect of doping CePtZn with Au and Ni and also investigated in detail the magnetic behavior of the iso-structural CeAuZn. A magnetic ground state is observed in both CePt_0.9Au_0.1Zn and CePt_0.9Ni_0.1Zn with T_N = 2.1 and 1.1 K and the coefficient of the linear term of electronic heat capacity γ = 0.34 and 0.9 J/mol K², respectively. The corresponding values for CePtZn are 1.7 K and 0.6 J/mol K². The altered values of T_N and γ show that the electronic correlations in CePtZn are affected by doping with Au and Ni. CeAuZn orders magnetically near 1.7 K and its electrical resistivity shows a normal metallic behavior. Together with a γ of 0.022 J/mol K² the data indicate a weak 4f-conduction electron hybridization in CeAuZn characteristic of normal trivalent cerium based systems.