Coexistence of superconductivity and antiferromagnetic order in SmRh 4B 4

H.C Hamaker,L.D Woolf,H.B Mackay,Z Fisk,M.B Maple

doi:10.1016/0038-1098(79)90949-9

H.C Hamaker, L.D Woolf + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-1098(79)90949-9

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Abstract

The ternary rare earth compound SmRh 4B 4 has been studied by means of upper critical field, low temperature specific heat, and static magnetic susceptibility measurements. A lambda-type specific heat anomaly, a discontinuity in the slope of the upper critical field versus temperature curve, and a cusp-like feature in the magnetic susceptibility suggest that superconductivity and long-range antiferromagnetic order coexist in SmRh 4B 4 below 0.87 K. Machida's theory for antiferromagnetic superconductors provides a good description of the upper critical field data, while the magnetic susceptibility data can be represented as the sum of a Curie-Weiss term with micro eff = 0.632 micro B and θ p = −1.93 K and a temperature independent Van Vleck contribution.

Highlights

The ternary rare earth compound SmRh4B4 has been studied by means of upper critical field, low temperature specific heat, and static magnetic susceptibility measurements
A lambda-type specific heat anomaly, a discontinuity in the slope of the upper critical field versus temperature curve, and a cusp-like feature in the magnetic susceptibility suggest that superconductivity and long-range antiferromagnetic order coexist in SmRh4B4 below 0
The class of ternary rare earth (RE) cornpounds RERh4B4 has recently been investigated in order to study the interaction between superconductivity and long-range magnetic order, The compounds are ferromagnetic for RE = Gd, Tb, Dy and Ho and superconducting for RE Sm, Nd, Er, Tm, and Lu. 1, 2

Summary

Introduction

The ternary rare earth compound SmRh4B4 has been studied by means of upper critical field, low temperature specific heat, and static magnetic susceptibility measurements. A lambda-type specific heat anomaly, a discontinuity in the slope of the upper critical field versus temperature curve, and a cusp-like feature in the magnetic susceptibility suggest that superconductivity and long-range antiferromagnetic order coexist in SmRh4B4 below 0. Machida’s theory for antiferromagnetic superconductors provides a good description of the upper critical field data, while the magnetic susceptibility data can be represented as the s~nriof a Curie-Weiss term with ~-‘eff = 0.632 UB and = -1.93 K and a temperature independent Van Vieck contribution.

Results

Conclusion