Magnetic Excitations in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor PrOs₄Sb₁₂

Abstract

Magnetic excitations in a single crystal of heavy-fermion superconductor PrOs₄Sb₁₂ have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering (INS) at low temperatures under high magnetic fields. The crystal field (CF) excitations at 0.7 meV observed in a previous INS study of a polycrystal sample were confirmed in this study on a single crystal. The observed excitations in the zero magnetic field soften around a wave vector (1,0,0), which is the modulation vector of the field-induced antiferro-quadrupolar ordering, suggesting the presence of quadrupolar instability. The observed field dependence of excitations is better reproduced in a singlet ground-state model rather than in a non-Kramers doublet ground-state model. In a high resolution experiment, furthermore, the change of the excitation spectra at (1,0,0) was observed on passing through the superconducting transition temperature, indicating that the excitation and the superconductivity are closely related in PrOs₄Sb₁₂.