Complex transport and magnetism in inhomogeneous mixed valence Ce3Ir4Ge13

A. M. Hallas, C. L. Huang, Binod K. Rai, A. Weiland, Gregory T. Mccandless, Julia Y. Chan, J. Beare, G. M. Luke, E. Morosan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the discovery of Ce3Ir4Ge13, a Remeika phase with a complex array of structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. Our single crystal X-ray diffraction measurements show that Ce3Ir4Ge13 forms in the tetragonally distorted I41/amd space group, which has three distinct rare earth sites. The electrical resistivity is almost temperature independent over three decades in temperature, from 0.4 K to 400 K, while the Hall coefficient measurements are consistent with a low-carrier semimetal. Magnetic susceptibility measurements reveal an effective moment, μeffexp=1.87μB/Ce, that falls significantly short of the expected value for Ce3+, suggesting that two of the rare earth sites are occupied by magnetic Ce3+ while the third is occupied by nonmagnetic Ce4+. Upon cooling, Ce3Ir4Ge13 first enters a short range magnetically ordered state below TSRO=10K, marked by a deviation from Curie-Weiss behavior in susceptibility and a broad field-independent heat capacity anomaly. At lower temperatures, we observe a second, sharper peak in the heat capacity at T∗=1.7K, concurrent with a splitting of the field-cooled and zero-field-cooled susceptibilities. A small resistivity drop at T∗ suggests a loss of spin disorder scattering consistent with a magnetic ordering or spin freezing transition. Ce3Ir4Ge13 is therefore a rare example of an inhomogeneous mixed valence compound with a complex array of thermodynamic and transport properties.

Original languageEnglish
Article number114407
JournalPhysical Review Materials
Volume3
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 12 2019
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Work at Rice was supported in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation EPiQS Initiative through Grant No. GBMF 4417 and US DOE BES Grant No. DE-SC0019503. A.M.H. acknowledges support from the Rice Center for Quantum Materials and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. Work at UT Dallas was supported by NSF Grant No. DMR-1700030. Work at McMaster was supported by NSERC and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

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