Magnetic and electrical properties of (Pu,Lu)Pd3

We present measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and electrical resistivity of Pu1−xLuxPd3, with x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8 and 1. PuPd3 is an antiferromagnetic heavy fermion compound with TN = 24 K. With increasing Lu doping, both the Kondo and RKKY interaction strengths fall, as judged by the Sommerfeld coefficient γ and Néel temperature TN . Fits to a crystal field model of the resistivity also support these conclusions. The paramagnetic effective moment μeff increases with Lu dilution, indicating a decrease in the Kondo screening. In the highly dilute limit, μeff approaches the value predicted by intermediate coupling calculations. In conjunction with an observed Schottky peak at ∼60 K in the magnetic heat capacity, corresponding to a crystal field splitting of ∼12 meV, a mean-field intermediate coupling model with nearest neighbour interactions has been developed.