Magnetic and Electrical Properties of Several Equiatomic Ternary U-Compounds

Magnetisation, specific heat, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistivity and Hall effect were measured for several equiatomic ternary (1-1-1) intermetallic compounds of formula RTX with R = U, Th, Hf and Ti, T a transition metal (Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt and Au), and X = Al, Ga, Sn and Sb. These compounds crystallize in three different crystal structures: the cubic MgAgAs-type, and the hexagonal Fe2P- and CaIn2-types. All U-compounds, which we focus upon in this paper, exhibit magnetic moments of about 3μB/U at high temperature and encompass U-U distances from 3.51 to 4.68 Å. For the compounds which the largest U-U distances, Kondo-lattice behaviour was observed. The specific heat coefficient γ shows typical metallic values with some enhancement. Remarkably these compounds have an electrical resistivity up to three orders of magnitude larger than that expected and usually found for U-based intermetallic compounds. The Hf- and Th-based compounds serve as nonmagnetic reference materials, however, they also exhibit anomalously larger resistivities.