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Complex magnetic behavior of the Ce sawtooth chains in CeRhSn2

P. Opletal1, J. Fikáček1, E. Duverger–Nédellec1,2, A. Thamizhavel3, Z. Hossain4,5, R. Tarasenko6, V. Tkáč6, D. Legut1,7, Bin Shen8 et al.

P. Gegenwart8 and J. Custers1,*

  • *Contact author: jeroen.custers@matfyz.cuni.cz
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Phys. Rev. B 114, 045118 – Published 17 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pkdg-n4yk

Abstract

Conflicting reports exist on the ground state of the intermetallic compound CeRhSn2. This can be rooted in the sawtoothlike arrangement of two inequivalent Ce sites in the unit cell, which suggests potential geometric magnetic frustration. To resolve these conflicting reports, we conducted a comprehensive study on high-quality single crystals of CeRhSn2 by means of magnetization (M), specific heat (Cp/T), and resistivity (ρ). The system exhibits strong magnetic anisotropy, confirming the b axis as the easy magnetic axis. We establish three successive transitions: an antiferromagnetic order at TN=3.65K, a first-order ferromagnetic (FM) order at TC=1.7K and final transition, at T=1.5K. The transition temperatures are highly field-directional dependent: in a magnetic field, the lowest transition is immediately suppressed while H∥b rapidly merges TC and TN into a single second-order transition. Conversely, H∥c suppresses the FM order and reduces TN. Additional ab initio calculations affirm the FM ground state of CeRhSn2. The observation of an enhancement of the Sommerfeld coefficient (γ=76.5mJ/molK2) may arise from geometric frustration, but it is most consistently attributed to weak Kondo hybridization as frustration cannot be conclusively established through our data.

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Phys. Rev. B 114, 045118– Published 17 July, 2026
  • Received 16 January 2026
  • Revised 24 March 2026
  • Accepted 7 May 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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