Heavy Fermion - Historical Overview

Historical Overview

Heavy fermion behavior was discovered by Andres, Graebner and Ott in 1975, who observed enormous magnitudes of the linear specific heat capacity in CeAl₃.

While investigations on doped superconductors led to the conclusion that the existence of localized magnetic moments and superconductivity in one material was incompatible, the opposite was shown, when in 1979 Steglich et al. discovered heavy fermion superconductivity in the material CeCu₂Si₂.

The discovery of a quantum critical point and non fermi liquid behavior in the phase diagram of heavy fermion compounds by von Löhneysen et al. in 1995 led to a new rise of interest in the research of theses compounds.

Heavy fermion materials play an important role in current scientific research, acting as prototypical materials for unconventional superconductivity, non fermi liquid behavior and quantum critically. The actual interaction between localized magnetic moments and conduction electrons in heavy fermion compounds is still not completely understood and a topic of ongoing investigation.