Exploring high temperature magnetic order in CeTi 1- x Sc x Ge

Abstract

We studied the magnetic, transport, and thermodynamic properties of the alloy CeTi1-xScxGe in order to shed some light into the origin of the exceptionally large antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering temperature TN = 47 K in pure CeScGe. We observed a complex magnetic phase diagram, which present an interesting dichotomy: Despite strong changes in the nature of the ordered state, from ferromagnetic (FM) for x ≤ 0.55 to AFM for x > 0.55, the ordering temperature increases smoothly and continuously from TC = 7 K at x = 0.25 to TN = 47 K at x = 1. Within the AFM regime we observe a metamagnetic transition at a critical field increasing from H = 0 at x ≈ 0.55 to μ0 * H ≈ 6 Tesla at x = 1. Furthermore a second transition appears at TL ≤ TN for x ≥ 0.65. In contrast to observations in CeRh2Si2 or CeRh3B2, we found no evidence for a strong hybridization of the 4f electrons at large Sc contents. Therefore the exceptionally large TN of CeScGe could be attributed to the unusually strong RKKY interaction in this type of compounds.