NEUTRON INELASTIC-SCATTERING EXPERIMENTS ON SEMIMETALLIC ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS

This paper traces the development of the study of the dynamical proper ties of the semimetallic actinide compounds that have a NaCl crystal s tructure (monopnictides and monochalcogenides) from the first experime nt with a triple-axis spectrometer at Chalk River National Laboratory in 1976. The important realization that the excitations could be overd amped even in an ordered magnetic material, such as UN, because of the interaction between the 5f and conduction electrons remains one of th e 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 unders tood in terms of the hybridization between the 5f and conduction elect rons.