Magnetic phase diagram of CePt3B1-xSix

TL;DR

This study maps the magnetic phase diagram of CePt3B1-xSix, revealing a continuous evolution from CePt3B-like magnetic properties to CePt3Si-like behavior as Si content increases, highlighting the relationship between composition and magnetic states.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive magnetic phase diagram of CePt3B1-xSix, demonstrating the continuous transformation of magnetic ground states with Si doping.

Findings

Low Si content alloys resemble CePt3B with antiferromagnetic and weakly ferromagnetic phases.

Higher Si content alloys exhibit properties similar to CePt3Si, including heavy fermion behavior.

CePt3B acts as a low-pressure analog of CePt3Si.

Abstract

We present a study of the main bulk properties (susceptibility, magnetization, resistivity and specific heat) of CePt_3B_(1-x)Si-x, an alloying system that crystallizes in a noncentrosymmetric lattice, and derive the magnetic phase diagram. The materials at the end point of the alloying series have previously been studied, with CePt_3B established as a material with two different magnetic phases at low temperatures (antiferromagnetic below T_N = 7.8 K, weakly ferromagnetic below T_C ~ 5 K), while CePt3Si is a heavy fermion superconductor (T_c = 0.75 K) coexisting with antiferromagnetism (T_N = 2.2 K). From our experiments we conclude that the magnetic phase diagram is divided into two regions. In the region of low Si content (up to x ~ 0.7) the material properties resemble those of CePt3B. Upon increasing the Si concentration further the magnetic ground state continuously transforms into that of CePt3Si. In essence, we argue that CePt_3B can be understood as a low pressure variant of CePt3Si.