Inelastic neutron scattering study of CeNi2Ge2

The static magnetic susceptibility of the non-Fermi liquid heavy fermion co mpound CeNi2Ge2 is highly anisotropic, with the easy c-axis susceptibility showing unusual behaviour. It displays a broad maximum near 30 It, which ha s been interpreted as evidence for the development of short-range antiferro magnetic correlations: a similar peak is found in CeRu2Si2 at 10 K. Unlike the latter case, however, the c-axis susceptibility continues to rise sharp ly below 10 K, which has been attributed to impurity effects. We report ine lastic neutron scattering studies of this compound that indicate that the a nisotropy and temperature dependence of the susceptibility is intrinsic to the material and can be described by a crystal field model. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science B.V. All rights reserved.