Crystal field splitting in the heavy fermion compounds Ce2X (X = Sb,Bi)

We performed inelastic neutron scattering experiments on polycrystalline sa mples of the heavy fermion compounds Ce2X (X = Sb, Bi), We observed a well- defined magnetic peak at 5.4 +/-: 0.1 meV in an inelastic spectrum of Ce2Bi at 21 K, which indicates that Ce2Bi includes well localised 4f states. In contrast, Ce2Sb shows only broad magnetic scattering with a small magnetic peak at about 1.5 meV at 21 K. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.