Influence of Pressure on the Electrical Transport Properties of Carbon-Doped EuB6

G. Pristáša, S. Gabáni a, I. Baťko a, M. Baťková a, M. Orendáča,b, E. Gažo a, V. Filipov c, E. Konovalova c, P. Diko a and K. Flachbart a aInstitute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia bInstitute of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, P.J. Safarik University, Park Angelinum 9, 040 01 Košice, Slovakia cInstitute for Problems of Material Science, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Krzhyzhanovsky 3, 03680 Kiev, Ukraine

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We have studied the influence of hydrostatic pressure on the electrical resistivity of carbon-doped semimetal EuB6 which orders ferromagnetically at TC=3.9 K and is intrinsically inhomogeneous due to fluctuations of carbon content. We observed a shift of the low-temperature resistivity maximum from 4.6 K (at 1 bar) to 5.2 K (at 30.3 kbar) with increasing pressure. However, the maximum of the derivative dρ/dT(T), which reveals the temperature of ferromagnetic ordering, does not change its position with increasing pressure. This behaviour is different from stoichiometric EuB6, where pressure increases the ferromagnetic ordering temperature. The origin of this discrepancy may lie in the increase of volume fraction of the non-ferromagnetic phase with increase of pressure. Additional magnetoresistance measurements at various pressures between 1.5 K and 30 K have shown that with increase of magnetic field the resistivity is monotonically decreasing, and above 1 T a transition to a monotonic resistivity behaviour (dρ/dT(T)<0) is observed. Our results support the picture that carbon-rich regions play a role of "spacers", which prevent the percolation of the ferromagnetic phase.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.131.982 PACS numbers: 74.62.Fj, 75.30.Kz