Single crystal diffraction study of the triangular lattice Kondo antiferromagnet Ce2PdSi3

When magnetic ions form a triangular lattice, there is often strong magnetic frustration where no ground state satisfies all the magnetic interactions, leading to novel ground states such as spin liquids. With the addition of strong hybridization effects (Kondo coupling) an even wider range of unusual phenomena are expected, but such highly frustrated heavy fermion systems are difficult to realize. Here we propose to probe the heavy fermion antiferromagnet Ce2PdSi3, in which Ce-atoms form a triangular lattice, using single crystal neutron diffraction on the WISH diffractometer. Ce2PdSi3 has both a complex crystal structure with an extended superlattice, and an incommensurate magnetic ground state, and from our study we will determine both the magnetic and crystal structures. These will provide important information about the nature of the magnetism and influence of magnetic frustration, as well as the interplay between the spin and structural modulations.