Suppression of the Shastry-Sutherland phase in Ce2Pd2Sn at a field-induced critical point

Abstract

The magnetic phase diagram of Ce2Pd2Sn is investigated through the field dependence of thermal, transport, and magnetic properties at low temperature. The upper transition, TM=4.8 K is slightly affected by magnetic field up to B=1 T whereas the lower one TC(B) rapidly increases from 2.1 K joining TM in a critical point at Tcr=(4.1±0.2) K for Bcr=(0.11±0.01) T. At that point, the intermediate phase, previously described as an unstable Shastry-Sutherland lattice, is suppressed. A detailed analysis around the critical point reveals a structure in the maximum of the ∂M/∂B(B) derivative, which may be related to a step in magnetization predicted by theory for the mentioned lattice.