Crystal-Field Effect on the Transport Properties of PrCu₆ and PrIn₃

Abstract

Measurements have been made of the thermal conductivity and the electrical resistivity of the singlet-ground-state compounds of praseodymium, PrCu₆ and PrIn₃, at temperatures between 1.5 and 15 K. The results on PrCu₆ clearly showed the effect of crystal-field splitting of the 4f level of Pr ion. By comparing the measured thermal conductivity with theory, information of the crystal-field level scheme is obtained. In PrIn₃ the effect is negligibly small below 15 K in agreement with known level scheme.