Magnetisation and magneto-transport measurements on CeBi single crystals

ABSTRACT

We report the synthesis of CeBi single crystals out of Bi self-flux and a systematic study of the magnetic and transport properties with varying temperature and applied magnetic fields. From these $R(T,H)$ and $M(T,H)$ data, we could assemble the field-temperature (H−T) phase diagram for CeBi and visualise the three-dimensional M−T−H surface. In the phase diagram, we identify regions with well-defined magnetisation values and identify a new phase region. The magnetoresistance (MR) in the low-temperature regime shows, above 6 T a power-law, non-saturated behaviour with large MR ($\sim 3\times {10}^5\text{\%}$ at 2 K and 13.95 T), along with Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations. With increasing temperatures, MR decreases, and then becomes negative for $T⪆10$ K. This crossover in MR seems to be unrelated to any specific magnetic or metamagnetic transitions, but rather is associated with changing from a low-temperature normal metal regime with little or no scattering from the Ce${}^{3+}$ moments and an anomalously large MR, to increased scattering from local Ce moments and a negative MR as temperature increases.

KEYWORDS:

• Metamagnetism
• rare-earth monopnictides
• magnetoresistance
• phase diagram

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Work at the Ames Laboratory was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The Ames Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract No. DEAC0207CH11358. B.K. was supported by the Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. DOE, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. N.H.J. was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation EPiQS Initiative [grant number GBMF4411]. L.X. was supported, in part, by the W. M. Keck Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative through Grant GBMF4411.