Informacje ogólne

A direct consequence of the partial filling of the f shell is the possibility of localized of magnetic moments in the tested compounds and their spontaneous organization in a (usually very low) temperature. Interactions leading to the order areaccompanied by the interactions that destroy that order. The competition of these two processes results in the presence of a wide range of poorly studied physical phenomena such as the formation of superheavy quasiparticles (i. e. heavy fermions), unconventional superconductivity, or non-Fermi liquid behavior. A detailed description of these phenomena cannot be found in academic textbooks and their description is one of the major challenges of modern solid state physics.

The Division also specializes in experimental and theoretical studies of electron transport phenomena occurring in single crystals of lanthanum compounds and actinides. Among lanthanide compounds a lot of attention is paid to the ones in which the Kondo effect, splitting of the 4f states in the crystalline field as well as magnetic and quadrupole ordering have a visible impact on the properties of electronic transport. Of high interest are also regular LaMe₃ compounds as well as filled arsenide scutterudites arsenic - LaT₄As₁₂ (La - lanthanide; Me - Sn, Pb, In, Ga, T - Fe, Ru, Os). Arsenide scutterudites filled with a lanthanide have been obtained in the Division in the form of single crystals for the first time in the world. These arsenide scutterudites, like the previously studied by other authors filled phosphoride and antimonide scutterudites  (the so-called thermoelectric rattles), have a great wealth of physical properties that are the driving force behind the scientific and technological interest. Research of actinide compounds led the Division to detection of the existence of:

1. non-magnetic Kondo effect of structural defects in crystals, both diamagnetic thorium pnictochalcogenides and ferromagnetic uranium pnictochalcogenides
2. ferromagnetic semiconductor (Th_xU_1-x)₃As₄ with potentially interesting spintronic properties.

As one of the few in Poland,  for many years the Division has specialized in studies of NMR of nuclei of s, p and d-electron elements in alloys and intermetallic compounds. These hydrides and borides of transition metals and intermetallic compounds of these elements involving rare earth and uranium, which are extremely important from the point of view of their practical applications. They show a great wealth of physical properties: from the semiconductor nature to magnetic, quadrupole ordering or heavy-fermion properties. It has been recently shown that the use of techniques of high-speed rotation at the magic angle (MAS) at the resonance of "heavy" nuclei ¹¹⁹Sn and ¹⁹⁵Pt allows to obtain multiplet structure of the spectra of resonant compounds TiPtSn and ZrPtSn, thereby detecting the effects of scalar and covalent nature of the chemical bonds in these compounds. On the other hand, studies using a "light" core ¹¹B in a number of borides: YB₄, YB₆, YB₁₂, ZrB₁₂, or 12 allowed to determine the size of components of the electric field gradient (GPE) tensor in boron atoms positions. These values have allowed to validate theoretical calculations of the electronic structure, which lay down the GPE tensor for these compounds.

Another specialty of the Division is the work on metal hydrides:

1. Low- and high-pressure synthesis of new hydride phases.
2. Investigation of the effect of hydrogen on the structural and magnetic properties of complex intermetallic compounds of rare earth with d-metals.
3. Studies on the properties of hydrogen absorption by Mg-Ni alloys synthesized using mechnical milling.
4. Characterization of hydride systems using method for testing the pressure equilibrium isotherms as a function of the concentration of hydrogen.
5. Studies of thermodynamic properties of the MAX d-metal triple carbide phases using low-temperature calorimetry.