Non-Fermi liquid behavior and griffiths phase in f-electron compounds

We study the interplay among disorder, RKKY, and Kondo interactions in f-electron alloys. We argue that the non-Fermi liquid behavior observed in these systems is due to the existence of a Griffiths phase close to a quantum critical point. The existence of this phase provides a unified picture of a large class of materials. We also propose new experiments that can test these ideas. © 1998 The American Physical Society.