Abstract
We investigated the anisotropic magnetic properties of CePd2As2 by magnetic, thermal and electrical transport studies. X-ray diffraction confirmed the tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure and the high-quality of the single crystals. Magnetisation and magnetic susceptibility data taken along the different crystallographic directions evidence a huge crystalline electric field (CEF) induced Ising-type magneto-crystalline anisotropy with a large c-axis moment and a small in-plane moment at low temperature. A detailed CEF analysis based on the magnetic susceptibility data indicates an almost pure |±5/2〉 CEF ground-state doublet with the dominantly |±3/2〉 and the |±1/2〉 doublets at 290 K and 330 K, respectively. At low temperature, we observe a uniaxial antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at TN = 14.7 K with the crystallographic c-direction being the magnetic easy-axis. The magnetic entropy gain up to TN reaches almost R ln 2 indicating localised 4 f-electron magnetism without significant Kondo-type interactions. Below TN, the application of a magnetic field along the c-axis induces a metamagnetic transition from the AFM to a field-polarised phase at μ0Hc0 = 0.95 T, exhibiting a text-book example of a spin-flip transition as anticipated for an Ising-type AFM.
Highlights
CePd2As2 with magnetic fields applied parallel (χ ) and perpendicular (χ⊥) to the crystallographic c-axis are depicted in Fig. 1. χ(T) shows a sharp peak at TN = 14.7 K for both field orientations indicating the AFM transition, in good agreement with the results previously reported on polycrystalline samples[16]
In order to establish the crystalline electric field (CEF) scheme and learn more about the magnetic anisotropy in CePd2As2, we performed a detailed CEF analysis based on our magnetic susceptibility data
We have investigated the magnetic properties and the CEF scheme of CePd2As2 by detailed temperature, magnetic field and angular dependent magnetic, thermodynamic and electrical transport studies on single crystalline samples
Summary
High quality single crystals of CePd2As2 have been synthesised by a self-flux method. CeAs precursors were prepared by heating a mixture of elemental Ce and As in a sealed evacuated quartz ampoule. Afterwards, CeAs precursors, Pd powder and As chips were weighed in a ratio of 1:2:1 and loaded into an alumina crucible, which was sealed in an evacuated quartz tube. The mixture was heated up to 950 °C for 5 days. The resulted powder was ground and cold pressed into a pellet, which was heated up to 1160 °C, and held at this temperature for 24 hours, followed by slow cooling to 900 °C at a rate of 1.6 °C/h. Shiny plate-like single crystals of CePd2As2 were obtained directly upon cooling the furnace down to room temperature
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