Strong influence of the Pd-Si ratio on the valence transition in EuPd$_2$Si$_2$ single crystals
- Resource Type
- Working Paper
- Authors
- Kliemt, Kristin; Peters, Marius; Reiser, Isabel; Ocker, Michelle; Walther, Franziska; Tran, Doan-My; Cho, Eunhyung; Merz, Michael; Haghighirad, Amir A.; Hezel, Dominik C.; Ritter, Franz; Krellner, Cornelius
- Source
- Subject
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
- Language
Single crystals of intermediate valent EuPd$_2$Si$_2$ were grown from an Eu-rich melt by the Bridgman as well as the Czochralski technique. The chemical and structural characterization of an extracted single crystalline Czochralski-grown specimen yielded a slight variation of the Si-Pd ratio along the growth direction and confirms the existence of a finite Eu(Pd$_{1-m}$Si$_m$)$_2$ homogeneity range. The thorough physical characterization carried out on the same crystal showed that this tiny variation in the composition strongly affects the temperature T$_v$ at which the valence transition occurs. These experiments demonstrate a strong coupling between structural and physical properties in the prototypical valence-fluctuating system EuPd$_2$Si$_2$ and explain the different reported values of T$_v$.