Structural properties of the heavy fermion antiferromagnet UPd2Sb

Abstract We present a detailed structural study by means of high-resolution powder neutron diffraction experiments on the newly synthesized heavy fermion antiferromagnet ( T N =55 K) UPd 2 Sb. The data from our experiments, carried out at 60 K and at room temperature, were analysed via full Rietveld refinements. The essential finding of this analysis is that UPd 2 Sb is crystallographically disordered on an atomic scale, in a fashion similar to that reported for related uranium-based Heusler compounds.