Effect of Zn-site substitution with Ga on non-Fermi liquid behavior in PrIr2Zn20

PrIr2Zn20 exhibits an antiferroquadrupolar (AFQ) order at TQ = 0.11 K, above which temperature the electrical resistivity ρ(T) shows an upward curvature and the magnetic specific heat divided by temperature Cm/T follows − lnT dependence. The non-Fermi Liquid (NFL) behaviors have suggested formation of a quadrupole Kondo lattice. In the present work, we have studied the effect of Ga substitution for Zn on the NFL behavior by the measurements of the specific heat C, the magnetic susceptibility χ, and ρ of PrIr2Zn20-xGax (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.25). With increasing x, the characteristic temperature T0 defined as the temperature where the magnetic entropy Sm reaches (3/4)Rln2 is increased by a factor of 3.5. Similarly, another characteristic temperature TR below which ρ(T) starts decreasing with the upward curvature increases with x by a factor of 1.2. The increments of both T0 and TR may be attributed to the possible split of the Γ3 doublet by symmetry lowering of the Pr sites. Otherwise, the quadrupole Kondo lattice would be stabilized by the enhanced c-f hybridization due to the increment of the 4p electronic density and/or the chemical pressure effect.