Magnetic Properties of a Novel CeCo0.715Si2.285 Compound

J. Moudříka, J. Prokleška a, J. Pospíšil a, V. Sechovský a and I. Císařová b aCharles University in Prague, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Ke Karlovu 5, 121 16 Prague 2, Czech Republic bCharles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Hlavova 2030/8, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic

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We report on the basic physical properties of a novel CeCo0.715Si2.285 compound, mainly its rich magnetic phase diagram. The compound crystallizes in the I-4m2 space group structure with extremely elongated unit cell (a=4.12 Å, c=32.84 Å). In a zero magnetic field it orders antiferromagnetically at TN=10.5 K with another order-to-order transition at 9.5 K. Under application of a magnetic field along the c-axis it manifests numerous magnetic transitions in small fields (B < 500 mT), resembling the so-called "devil's staircase" systems. Above 1 T the magnetization is almost constant up to 14 T (maximum magnetic field applied within our study) but considerably reduced (0.3 μB/Ce) with respect to the free Ce3+ ion. After removing the applied field, however, the high field state remains unchanged to be removed in negative fields. The compound also exhibits strong hysteresis of magnetization with respect to varying temperature or magnetic field. For fields applied along the a-axis typical behavior for the hard axis in the material with uniaxial anisotropy is observed.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.127.561 PACS numbers: 75.30.-m, 75.30.Gw, 75.30.Kz