Structural and electronic response of U3Fe4Ge4 to high pressure

Abstract

Structural, magnetic, and electrical properties have been studied on a U3Fe4Ge4 single crystal under hydrostatic pressure. The orthorhombic crystal structure is found to be stable up to 30 GPa, the highest applied pressure, but the compressibility is strongly anisotropic. Contrary to typical uranium intermetallics for which the softest lattice direction is along the shortest inter-uranium links, in U3Fe4Ge4 the lattice is compressed most in a perpendicular direction for the high pressure range. The elastic properties are modified considerably in the vicinity of 1 GPa when the b axis is transformed from least compressible to most compressible. The bulk modulus is found to be about 150 GPa. The anomalies in the elastic properties are reflected in the electronic properties that consistently indicate a change of the magnetic ground state from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic. Both types of order exhibit a gap in the magnon spectrum; however, it is twice as high for the ferromagnetic state. The magnetoresistance reveals field-induced transitions of different origins in the antiferromagnetic state along the easy and hard magnetization directions.