Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter

Magnetic order and crystalline electric field excitations of the quantum critical heavy-fermion ferromagnet CeRh6Ge4

J. W. Shu1, D. T. Adroja2,3, A. D. Hillier2, Y. J. Zhang4, Y. X. Chen1, B. Shen1, F. Orlandi2, H. C. Walker2, Y. Liu1,5 et al.

C. Cao1, F. Steglich1,6, H. Q. Yuan1,5,7,8, and M. Smidman1,5,*

  • 1Center for Correlated Matter and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • 2ISIS Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 3Highly Correlated Matter Research Group, Physics Department, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park 2006, South Africa
  • 4Institute for Advanced Materials, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China
  • 5Zhejiang Province Key Laboratory of Quantum Technology and Device, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • 6Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
  • 7State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • 8Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing 210093, China

  • *msmidman@zju.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. B 104, L140411 – Published 29 October, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.L140411

Abstract

CeRh6Ge4 is an unusual example of a stoichiometric heavy fermion ferromagnet, which can be cleanly tuned by hydrostatic pressure to a quantum critical point. To understand the origin of this anomalous behavior, we have characterized the magnetic ordering and crystalline electric field (CEF) scheme of this system. While magnetic Bragg peaks are not resolved in neutron powder diffraction, coherent oscillations are observed in zero-field μSR below TC, which are consistent with in-plane ferromagnetic ordering consisting of reduced Ce moments. From analyzing the magnetic susceptibility and inelastic neutron scattering, we propose a CEF-level scheme which accounts for the easy-plane magnetocrystalline anisotropy, where the low lying first excited CEF exhibits significantly stronger hybridization than the ground state. These results suggest that the orbital anisotropy of the ground state and low-lying excited state doublets are important for realizing anisotropic electronic coupling between the f and conduction electrons, which gives rise to the highly anisotropic hybridization observed in photoemission experiments.

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Authorization Required

We need you to provide your credentials before accessing this content.

Supplemental Material (Subscription Required)

References (Subscription Required)

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation