Electrical and magnetic properties of the cerium–transition metal intermetallics CeTSb 2 (T: Cu, Au, Ni)

Abstract

We have succeeded in growing single crystals of the cerium–transition metal intermetallics CeTSb 2 (T: Cu, Au, Ni) with the tetragonal structure via the self-flux method, and measured the electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, magnetization and specific heat. CeCuSb 2 and CeAuSb 2 are antiferromagnets with Néel temperatures of 6.9 and 5.0 K, respectively. CeCuSb 2 is a heavy-fermion antiferromagnet with an electronic specific heat coefficient γ=200 mJ/K 2 mol. CeAuSb 2 also is a similar compound with an antiferromagnetic easy axis along the [0 0 1] direction. CeNiSb 2 is a ferromagnet with a Curie temperature of 6.0 K. The easy axis is oriented along [1 0 0], with a moment of 0.6 μ B/Ce.