Kondo, fluctuation valence and non-Fermi liquid behaviors in CeNiSn1-x Ge x (0≤x≤1)

We report on crystalline structure, electrical resistivity, DC and AC magnetic susceptibilities, magnetization and magnetostriction (up to H=30 T and down to 4 K) for the orthorhombic CeNiSn1-x Ge x compounds. For 0x≥0.75 to high-temperature Kondo (from resistivity, ρ) and further to fluctuating valence (FV) (from susceptibility, χ dc) behaviors. Low-temperature Kondo GS reappears for x=1. Kondo antiferromagnet is found for x=0.10, reappearing for x=0.90, although antiferromagnetic two-spin correlations dominate for whole x. Ge-rich compounds (x=0.95, 0.90) appear as low-temperature non-Fermi liquids (ρ∼T), showing also broad maxima of fluctuating valence. Compounds for x=0, 0.1 and 0.9 show valence transitions at temperatures T v; at T v (H=30 T), volume, ω and tetragonal, λ t magnetostrictions become giant, ω∼10-2