Magnetism, heat capacity, magnetocaloric effect, and magneto-transport properties of heavy fermion antiferromagnet CeGaSi

Abstract We have synthesized high quality single crystals of CeGaSi by a Ga self-flux method and investigated its physical properties by means of magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and electrical resistivity measurements as well as high pressure effect. Magnetic measurements reveal that an antiferromagnetic order develops below T m ~ 10.4 K with magnetic moments orientated in the ab plane. The enhanced electronic specific heat coefficient as well as the negative logarithmic slopes in the resistivity of CeGaSi indicate that the title compound belongs to the family of Kondo system with heavy fermion ground states. The max magnetic entropy change –ΔS M max (μ 0 H⊥c, μ 0 H = 7 T) around T m was found to reach up to 11.85 J·kg–1·K–1. Remarkably, both the antiferromagnetic transition temperature and -lnT behavior increase monotonically with pressure applied to 20 kbar, indicating that much higher pressure will be needed to reach its quantum critical point.