X-ray absorption studies of the local structure and f-level occupancy in CeIr(1-x)Rh(x)In(5)

The CeIr{sub 1-x}Rh{sub x}In{sub 5} series exhibits a range of interesting phenomena, including heavy-fermion superconductivity, non-Fermi liquid behavior, and concomitant antiferromagnetism (AF) and superconductivity (SC). In the low-Rh concentration range (0.1 {ge} x {ge} 0.5), specific heat measurements show a broad anomaly, suggestive of gross phase separation. We have performed x-ray absorption experiments at the Ce L{sub III}, Ir L{sub III}, and Rh K-edges as a function of Rh concentration and temperature. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) measurements indicate that cerium is close to trivalent in this system, with no measurable change with temperature from 20-300 K, consistent with a heavy-fermion material. Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements as a function of temperature from all measured edges indicate the local crystal structure of all samples is well ordered, with no gross phase separation observed, even for samples with x = 0.125 and x = 0.25. These results therefore suggest that the anomalous specific heat behavior in the 0.1 {ge} x {ge} 0.5 range have some other explanation, and some possibilities are discussed