Heat capacity, magnetic susceptibility, and electric resistivity of the equiatomic ternary compound CePdSn

Results of low-temperature heat-capacity measurements (2--20 K) on CePdSn and of magnetic-susceptibility and electrical resistivity measurements (4.2--300 K) on CePdSn, GdPdSn, and DyPdSn are presented. These compounds are found to order antiferromagnetically with N\'eel temperatures (TN) of 7.5, 14.5, and 11.4 K for Ce, Gd, and Dy compounds, respectively. The N\'eel temperature of CePdSn is anomalously large compared with that expected on the basis of de Gennes scaling from the TN of 14.5 K of isostructural GdPdSn, suggesting strong Ce 4f conduction-electron hybridization. In the paramagnetic state the susceptibility of CePdSn follows Curie-Weiss behavior between 40 and 300 K with an effective paramagnetic moment close to that of free Ce³⁺ ion, but shows deviation from Curie-Weiss behavior below 40 K. The deviation may be due to the crystalline-electric-field effects. The magnetic entropy of CePdSn shows that the crystal-field-split ground state of Ce³⁺ is a doublet. An analysis of the susceptibility and resistivity results on CePdSn in terms of crystal-field effects is presented.