Correlation gap in the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet ${\mathrm{UPd}}_2{\mathrm{Al}}_3$

The optical properties of the heavy-fermion compound ${\mathrm{UPd}}_2{\mathrm{Al}}_3$ have been measured in a frequency range from 0.04 to 5 meV $(0.3\mathrm{}–40{\mathrm{cm}}^{-1})$ at temperatures $2\mathrm{K}<T<\mathrm{}300\mathrm{}\mathrm{K}.$ Below the coherence temperature $T^{*}\approx 50\mathrm{K},$ a hybridization gap opens around 10 meV. As the temperature decreases further $(T<~20\mathrm{K}),$ a well-pronounced pseudogap of approximately 0.2 meV develops in the optical response; we relate this to the antiferromagnetic ordering which occurs below $T_N\approx 14\mathrm{K}.$ The frequency-dependent mass and scattering rate give evidence that the enhancement of the effective mass mainly occurs below the energy which is associated to the magnetic correlations between the itinerant and localized $5f$ electrons. In addition to this correlation gap, we observe a narrow zero-frequency conductivity peak which at 2 K is less than 0.1 meV wide, and which contains only a fraction of the delocalized carriers. The analysis of the spectral weight infers a loss of kinetic energy associated with the superconducting transition.