De Haas – van Alphen effect and Fermi surface of the intermetallic compound PtSn

Abstract

Extremal cross sections of the Fermi surface of the intermetallic compound PtSn (NiAs structure) have been determined by means of the de Haas – van Alphen effect. The Fermi surface proposed here is similar to that found in isostructural AuSn by Edwards et al. Several of the frequencies have been inverted to yield the profile of the corresponding sheets of the Fermi surface. An approximate determination of the dimensions of the other sheets shows that the observed Fermi surface encloses 4.60 ± 0.27 electrons per formula unit; this suggests that one or several sheets of the Fermi surface containing 0.6 d-band holes per platinum atom have remained undetected. Some cyclotron masses have been measured and to explain all the features of the experimental results, it is necessary to invoke spin splitting with a g factor different from 2, and to postulate magnetic breakdown.