  CeNi9Ge4 exhibits outstanding heavy fermion features with remarkable
non-Fermi- liquid behavior which is mainly driven by single-ion effects. The
substitution of Ni by Cu causes a reduction of both, the RKKY coupling and
Kondo interaction, coming along with a dramatic change of the crystal field
(CF) splitting. Thereby a quasi-quartet ground state observed in CeNi9Ge4
reduces to a two-fold degenerate one in CeNi8CuGe4. This leads to a
modiffcation of the effective spin degeneracy of the Kondo lattice ground state
and to the appearance of antiferromagnetic (AFM) order. To obtain a better
understanding of consequences resulting from a reduction of the effective spin
degeneracy, we stepwise replaced Ni by Co. Thereby an increase of the Kondo and
RKKY interactions through the reduction of the effective d-electron count is
expected. Accordingly, a paramagnetic Fermi liquid ground state should arise.
Our experimental studies, however, reveal AFM order already for small Co
concentrations, which becomes even more pronounced with increasing Co content
x. Thereby the modiffcation of the effective spin degeneracy seems to play a
crucial role in this system.
