Pressure-Driven Quantum Criticality and T/H Scaling in the Icosahedral Au-Al-Yb Approximant

We report on ac magnetic susceptibility measurements under pressure of the Au-Al-Yb alloy, a crystalline approximant to the icosahedral quasicrystal that shows unconventional quantum criticality. In describing the susceptibility as $\chi (T{)}^{-1}-\chi (0{)}^{-1}\propto T^{\gamma }$, we find that $\chi (0{)}^{-1}$ decreases with increasing pressure and vanishes to zero at the critical pressure $P_{\mathrm{c}}\simeq 2$ GPa, with $\gamma (\simeq 0.5)$ unchanged. We suggest that this quantum criticality emerges owing to critical valence fluctuations. Above $P_{\mathrm{c}}$, the approximant undergoes a magnetic transition at $T\simeq 100$ mK. These results are contrasted with the fact that, in the quasicrystal, the quantum criticality is robust against the application of pressure. The applicability of the so-called $T\mathrm{/}H$ scaling to the approximant is also discussed.