We have studied the optical properties of the heavy-fermion compound UNi2Al3 at frequencies between 100 GHz and 1 THz (3 cm^-1 and 35 cm^-1), temperatures between 2 K and 300 K, and magnetic fields up to 7 T. From the measured transmission and phaseshift of radiation passing through a thin film of UNi2Al3, we have directly determined the frequency dependence of the real and imaginary parts of the optical conductivity (or permittivity, respectively). At low temperatures the anisotropy of the optical conductivity along the a- and c-axes is about 1.5. The frequency dependence of the real part of the optical conductivity shows a maximum at low temperatures, around 3 cm^-1 for the a-axis and around 4.5 cm^-1 for the c-axis. This feature is visible already at 30 K, much higher than the Neel temperature of 4.6 K, and it does not depend on external magnetic fields as high as 7 T. We conclude that this feature is independent of the antiferromagnetic order for UNi2Al3, and this might also be the case for UPd2Al3 and UPt3, where a similar maximum in the optical conductivity was observed previously.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

The optical conductivity of heavy fermions can reveal fundamental properties of the charge carrier dynamics in these strongly correlated electron systems. Here we extend the conventional techniques of infrared optics on heavy fermions by measuring the transmission and phase shift of THz radiation that passes through a thin film of UNi 2 Al 3 , a material with hexagonal crystal structure. We deduce the optical conductivity in a previously not accessible frequency range, and furthermore we resolve the anisotropy of the optical response (parallel and perpendicular to the hexagonal planes). At frequencies around 7 cm À1, we find a strongly temperature-dependent and anisotropic optical conductivity that -surprisingly -roughly follows the dc behavior.

We present transmission and phase measurements on a birefringent YAlO(3) crystal that is illuminated with linearly polarized terahertz radiation in a broad frequency range (10 cm(-1) to 16 cm(-1)). The spectra exhibit pronounced and complex Fabry-Perot resonances that depend on the polarization orientation of the incoming light. We present a theoretical description to analyze these data and to obtain the optical constants of the crystal in the terahertz range.

We study the dc resistivity of UNi 2 Al 3 thin films as a function of temperature and magnetic field. We focus on the temperature range around the antiferromagnetic transition (T N ≈ 4 K in zero applied field). From a clear signature of T N in the dc resistance along the crystallographic a-direction, we extract the shape of the magnetic phase diagram. Here we find quantitative differences in comparison to previous studies on bulk crystals.

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