NMR evidence for the partially gapped state in CeOs2Al10

Abstract

We report the results of a Al-27 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of CeOs2Al10 at temperatures between 4 and 300 K. This material has been of current interest due to indications of hybridization gap behavior below the transition temperature T-o similar or equal to 29 K. Five Al-27 NMR resonance lines that are associated with five nonequivalent crystallographic aluminum sites have been resolved. For each individual aluminum site, the low-temperature NMR Knight shift goes over a thermally activated response. The temperature-dependent spin-lattice-relaxation rate exhibits a rapid drop below T-o, indicative of the formation of an energy gap in this material. We interpret the Knight shift and the relaxation-rate data in light of the presence of a pseudogap with residual electronic density of states at the Fermi level. Moreover, the magnitude of the pseudogap of 120 K is extracted from NMR results, in agreement with the value obtained from the inelastic neutron-scattering experiment.