Abstract
We report the results of measurements of the electrical resistivity, the magnetization, and the specific heat of PrB4 below room temperature. The crystal electric field (CEF) splits the 4f2 multiplet of the Pr ions into nine singlets. In its ground state, PrB4 is an induced-moment ferromagnet with a saturation magnetization as high as 2.1μB (Prion). Contrary to previous experiments, we observe a first-order ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition at TC≈15.9±0.1K with a latent heat ΔQ=8.6J mol. The antiferromagnetic long-range order is quenched above TN=19.5K. Susceptibility and specific heat data, as well as the enormous magnetic anisotropy, can quantitatively be reproduced by a mean-field calculation which takes into account the CEF, obtained from a point-charge model using effective charges obtained from a self-consistent electronic band-structure calculation and a Zeeman term, as well as an anisotropic dipolar magnetic exchange and an effective quadrupole-quadrupole interaction term. © 2005 The American Physical Society.
Highlights
Previous work, reporting on the low-temperature properties of rare-earthREtetraboridesRB4͒, revealed the occurrence of two subsequent phase transitions in some of the members of this series: namely, with R = Tb, Dy, Ho, and Tm.1–3 This is intriguing for those cases where the rare-earth ions are non-Kramers ions
We report the results of measurements of the electrical resistivity, the magnetization, and the specific heat of PrB4 below room temperature
PrB4 is an induced-moment ferromagnet with a saturation magnetization as high as 2.1B / ͑Pr ion
Summary
Previous work, reporting on the low-temperature properties of rare-earthREtetraboridesRB4͒, revealed the occurrence of two subsequent phase transitions in some of the members of this series: namely, with R = Tb, Dy, Ho, and Tm.. The Pr ions adopt a 4f2 configuration and the corresponding Hund’s-rule groundstate multiplet, with total angular momentum J = 4, splits into nine singlet states under the influence of the CEF. Previous work on this compound reported a considerable anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility below room temperature and the onset of ferromagnetic order at a Curie temperature of TC = 24 K.7,8.
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