Magnetoresistance investigation on single crystalline Ce3Pd20Si6 across the temperature-magnetic field phase diagram

Abstract

The heavy fermion cage compound Ce3Pd20Si6 crystallizes in a cubic crystal structure with two inequivalent Ce sites. It undergoes two phase transitions at TQ = 0.5 K and TN = 0.31 K which are tentatively attributed, respectively, to antiferroquadrupolar and to antiferromagnetic order. Recent specific heat investigations on single crystals detected additional anomalies within the antiferroquadrupolar phase, for a magnetic field applied along the [100] direction, suggesting the presence of a tricritical point at around 2.3 T and 0.5 K. We performed isothermal magnetoresistivity investigations (down to 0.055 K) on single crystalline Ce3Pd20Si6 across the B – T phase diagram to gain further insight on this new feature.