Antiferro- and ferromagnetic ordering in a PrGe single crystal

Abstract

An equiatomic PrGe single crystal was grown by the Czochralski pulling method. The grown single crystal was found to have CrB-type orthorhombic crystal structure with the space group Cmcm (no. 63). Transport and magnetization data reveal large anisotropy in the electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and magnetization. PrGe was found to exhibit two consecutive magnetic orderings at 44 K and 41.5 K, respectively. The magnetic susceptibility measurement along the three principal directions in low applied fields revealed a cusp-like behaviour at 44 K while at 41.5 K a ferromagnetic-like increase was observed. The hysteretic behaviour in the magnetization measurement at 1.8 K confirmed the ferromagnetic nature of PrGe at low temperatures. The heat capacity data clearly revealed the bulk nature of two magnetic transitions by the presence of two sharp peaks attaining values exceeding 40 J K−1 mol−1 at the respective temperatures. The absence of a Schottky contribution in the magnetic part of the heat capacity indicates a quasi-ninefold degenerate J = 4 magnetic ground state in this system. The low temperature data of electrical resistivity and the magnetic part of the heat capacity show the existence of a gap in the spin-wave spectrum.