Spin dynamics of the Kondo insulator CeNiSn approaching the metallic phase

The spin dynamics of Kondo insulators has been studied by high-resolution magnetic neutron spectroscopy at a triple-axes spectrometer on CeNi1-xCuxSn single crystals using a vertical 9 T magnet. While upon doping (x = 0.13) the spin gap of the Kondo insulator CeNiSn collapses at the transition to an antiferromagnetic ordered metallic Kondo compound, no such instability is observed in CeNiSn in magnetic fields up to 9 T. Both the sharp magnetic excitations (at 2 and 4 meV) appear significantly broader for energy and momentum transfer at high fields, while the ground-state correlations (probed by chi'(0)) remain unaffected by the magnetic field.