Quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surfaces of the antiferromagnet U$_2$RhIn$_8$ revealed by de Haas-van Alphen measurements

Abstract

We report temperature-dependent Hall effect and low-temperature de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) effect measurements of the antiferromagnetic heavy-fermion compound U$_2$RhIn$_8$. Temperature dependence of the Hall resistivity suggests a considerable reduction of the carrier density in the antiferromagnetic phase. The observed angular dependence of the dHvA frequencies suggests the existence of three almost ideally two-dimensional Fermi surfaces one of which is quite large. The measured effective masses range from 2$m_0$ to 14$m_0$ for the field applied along the $c$ axis. Local density approximation band-structure calculations performed for the paramagnetic ground state reveal more three-dimensional Fermi surfaces than those observed in the experiment. On the other hand, Fermi surfaces obtained for the antiferromagnetic ground state by band folding are more two dimensional. These calculations account reasonably well for the experimental results assuming a slight modification of the calculated Fermi surfaces.