Sb-NMR/NQR study of CeIrSb Original Research Article

We report Sb-NMR/NQR measurements on a valence fluctuating compound CeIrSb, which is isostructural to the Kondo semiconductors CeRhSb and CeNiSn. The nuclear spin–lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature, 1/T1T1/T1T has a maximum around 300 K and considerably decreases in proportion to T2T2 when cooling down, followed by a 1/T1T∼const1/T1T∼const. behavior below 20 K. These results indicate that CeIrSb has a V-shaped pseudogap with a residual density of states at the Fermi level. The size of pseudogap for CeIrSb is estimated to be about 350 K, which is one order of magnitude larger than the values of 28 K for CeRhSb and 14 K for CeNiSn. The larger size of energy gap in CeIrSb may be attributed to much stronger c–f hybridization than those for CeRhSb and CeNiSn.