Impurity quadrupole Kondo ground state in a dilute Pr system Y1-xPrxIr2Zn20

The electrical resistivity ρ and specific heat C of a dilute Pr system Y1-xPrxIr2Zn20 for 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.44 were measured to study the phenomena arising from active quadrupoles of the Pr3+ ion with 4f2 configuration. On cooling, ρ's of all samples monotonically decrease, while the residual resistivity ratio ρ(300 K)/ρ(3 K) drastically decreases with x. In the whole range x ≤ 0.44, the magnetic contribution to the specific heat divided by temperature Cm/T shows a broad maximum at around 10 K, which can be reproduced by a two-level model with a first-excited triplet separated by 30 K from a ground state doublet. This indicates that the crystalline electric field ground state of the Pr ions remains in the Γ3 doublet for the cubic Td point group. On cooling, the Cm/T data for x = 0.085 and 0.44 approach constant values at T<0.3 K as expected from the random two-level model. By contrast, Cm/T for x = 0.044 increases continuously down to 0.08 K, suggesting a non-Fermi liquid state due to the impurity quadrupole Kondo effect.