Unusual magnetic order and crystalline electric fields in itinerant Cerium-based materials
ORAL
Abstract
Magnetic frustration can generate new quantum phases of matter with exotic physical properties. Lanthanide-based materials can generate frustration from the geometrical arrangement of magnetic ions, magnetocrystalline anisotropy from spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and crystalline electric field (CEF) effects, Kondo interactions, and conduction electron mediated Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) magnetic exchange interactions. Here, we report investigations of two Ce-based materials, CeLiBi2 and CeLi3Bi2, with frustrated magnetic ground states. In tetragonal CeLiBi2, a complex competition between CEF anisotropy and extended magnetic exchange leads to a multitude of intertwined quantum phases. This includes hard-axis metamagnetism, highly mobile carriers, incommensurate cycloidal magnetic order below 3.4 K in neutron diffraction data, and quantum oscillations in dilatometry and resistivity measurements. Neutron diffraction and NMR measurements reveal itinerant triangular lattice CeLi3Bi2 exhibits stripy antiferromagnetic order below 1.2 K with small Ce moment magnitudes. In CeLi3Bi2, we further investigate the splitting of the local Ce ion D3d CEF utilizing combined magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, and magnetospectroscopy measurements.
*Work at Los Alamos was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering and was additionally supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. A portion of this research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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Presenters
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Mitchell Bordelon
- Los Alamos National Laboratory