Hysteresis Effects of alpha-Uranium at Low Temperatures.

Abstract

We studied the thermal hysteresis in the electrical resistance of alpha-Uranium, the hysteresis caused by the coldest of the three known charge density wave (CDW) phase transitions in this material. In order to observe the effects on the hysteresis we varied the magnetic field, current and the temperature sweep rate. The magnitude of the hysteresis was affected by the current and magnetic field changes. No significant change was observed with the variation of the temperature sweep rate. Unlike the behavior of most CDW systems which have a warming curve with a larger resistance than the cooling curve, our hysteresis curve has a cooling curve with larger resistance than the warming curve. The observed phenomenon is not well understood and deserves further investigation.