Neutron inelastic-scattering experiments on semimetallic actinide compounds

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the study of the dynamical properties of the semimetallic actinide compounds that have a NaCl crystal structure (monopnictides and monochalcogenides) from the first experiment with a triple-axis spectrometer at Chalk River National Laboratory in 1976. The important realization that the excitations could be overdamped even in an ordered magnetic material, such as UN, because of the interaction between the 5f and conduction electrons remains one of the unique aspects of the physics of these materials. Later experiments on UTe and the transuranium material PuSb are discussed, together with the theoretical concepts that have allowed these results to be understood in terms of the hybridization between the 5f and conduction electrons.