Doping-induced redistribution of magnetic spectral weight in substituted hexaborides Ce$_{1-x}$La$_x$B$_6$ and Ce$_{1-x}$Nd$_x$B$_6$

TL;DR

This study uses diffuse neutron scattering to explore how doping alters the magnetic spectral weight and Fermi surface nesting in CeB$_6$ substituted with La and Nd, revealing the relationship between electronic structure and magnetic order.

Contribution

It demonstrates how diffuse neutron scattering can directly probe nesting vectors and elucidates the role of Fermi surface geometry in magnetic order stabilization in rare-earth hexaborides.

Findings

Doping redistributes magnetic spectral weight across the Brillouin zone.

Suppression of the AFQ order peak at the R point with doping.

Emergence of long-range AFM order at the X point in Nd-rich samples.

Abstract

We investigate the doping-induced changes in the electronic structure of CeB$_6$ on a series of substituted Ce$_{1-x}R_x$B$_6$ samples ($R$ = La, Nd) using diffuse neutron scattering. We observe a redistribution of magnetic spectral weight across the Brillouin zone, which we associate with the changes in the Fermi-surface nesting properties related to the modified charge carrier concentration. In particular, a strong diffuse peak at the corner of the Brillouin zone ($R$ point), which coincides with the propagation vector of the elusive antiferroquadrupolar (AFQ) order in CeB$_6$, is rapidly suppressed by both La and Nd doping, like the AFQ order itself. The corresponding spectral weight is transferred to the $X(00\frac{1}{2})$ point, ultimately stabilizing a long-range AFM order at this wave vector at the Nd-rich side of the phase diagram. At an intermediate Nd concentration, a broad diffuse peak with multiple local maxima of intensity is observed around the $X$ point, evidencing itinerant frustration that gives rise to multiple ordered phases for which Ce$_{1-x}$Nd$_x$B$_6$ is known. On the La-rich side of the phase diagram, however, dilution of the magnetic moments prevents the formation of a similar $(00\frac{1}{2})$-type order despite the presence of nesting. Our results demonstrate how diffuse neutron scattering can be used to probe the nesting vectors in complex f-electron systems directly, without reference to the single-particle band structure, and emphasize the role of Fermi surface geometry in stabilizing magnetic order in rare-earth hexaborides.