Crystal Structure and Chemical Bonding in Gallides of Rare-Earth Metals

A Novel Magnetic Material by Design: Observation of Yb3+ with Spin-1/2 in YbxPt5P

“…With the question in mind, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments were performed on Yb 0.660(4) Pt 5 P and Yb 0.96(1) Pt 5 P, which confirmed the 3+ oxidation state of Yb in both samples, as shown in Figure S2. "phonon background") indicates that there is indeed one effective S = 1/2 degrees of freedom per formula unit at temperatures below 3 K. Zero-Resistance Transition Observed in Yb 0.25 Pt 5 P but Suppressed in YbPt 5 P. Figure 4a presents zeroresistance transitions of two samples with x = 0.23 (1) and 0.29 (1). The resistivity curve from 1.8 to 300 K is consistent with what is expected for a metal in Yb 0.23(1) Pt 4.87(4) P 0.90 (5) and Yb 0.29(1) Pt 5 P without a phase transition shown in Figure S3.…”

“…According to single crystal X-ray diffraction, the Yb content (x) in YbxPt5P varies significantly from x= 0.20~1.0. We studied the magnetic and electronic properties on two samples with x = 0.23 (1) and 0.96 (1). In both samples, we observed antiferromagnetic transitions of Yb 3+ around 0.3 K. Moreover, the zeroresistivity transition, highly possible a superconducting transition, was observed around ~0.6 K only in low ratio Yb sample, Yb0.20(1)Pt5P, but not in Yb0.96(1)Pt5P.…”

“…Heavy fermion superconductors, most of which are 4f 1 Ce-based, are one way that the two kinds of electronic systems can interact, [16][17][18][19] and an alternative is for more weakly coupled rare earth-metal systems, such as is seen for rare earth Chevrel phases 6,[20][21][22][23] and the lanthanide borocarbides. [24][25][26][27][28] Yb 3+ , with a 4f 13 electronic configuration, is often considered as the hole analogue of Ce 3+ , however, only a single Yb-based heavy-fermion superconductor, YbAlB4 has been reported to date, with Tc = 0.08 K; 29 the large discrepancy must be due to unfavorable Ybmetal hybridization energies in most cases.…”

“…Understanding the electronic interactions in intermetallic compounds and designing the functional materials with targeted physical properties accordingly have been long-standing challenges in materials science. On one side, the classical chemical concepts, such as charge balance arguments and electron-counting rules, do not work for intermetallic compounds with strong electron correlation, partially for the valence orbital manifold, and occasionally for relativistic effects . On the other side, quantum-chemical techniques including machine learning is hindered by the limited data of materials with specific properties, such as superconductivity. − The interplay between superconductivity and magnetism, which can happen under very restricted conditions, has the potential to lead to exotic, new condensed matter physics and quantum devices.…”

“…According to single-crystal X-ray diffraction, the Yb content (x) in Yb x Pt 5 P varies significantly from x = 0.23−0.96. We studied the magnetic and electronic properties on two samples with x = 0.23 (1) and 0.96 (1). In both samples, we observed antiferromagnetic transitions of Yb 3+ around 0.3 K. Moreover, zero-resistivity transition was observed around ∼0.6 K only in low ratio Yb samples, Yb 0.23(1) Pt 4.87(4) P 0.90 (5) and Yb 0.29(1) Pt 5 P, but not in Yb 0.96(1) Pt 5 P. Our new quantum material is a new ideal platform to study the interplay between superconductivity and magnetism.…”