Optical, transport and magnetic properties of new compound CeCd3P3

Abstract

We have found that CeCd 3 P 3 crystallizes into a hexagonal ScAl 3 C 3type structure.The optical, transport and magnetic properties of CeCd 3 P 3 were investigated by measuring the diffuse reflectance, electrical resistivity and magnetization. CeCd 3 P 3 is a semiconductor with the fundamental band gap of approximately 0.75 eV. The 4f electrons of Ce 3+ ions are well localized but do not show long range order down to 0.48 K, presumably due to the geometrical frustration of Ce atoms. The magnetic ordering temperature is possibly lower than that of isostructural CeZn 3 P 3 (0.75 K). Because several f -electron compounds with the ScAl 3 C 3 -type structure are quantum spin systems, CeCd 3 P 3 may be a candidate of quantum spin liquid. On the other hand, the relatively large band gap compared to approximately 0.4 eV in CeZn 3 P 3 , would not be intimate with the observation of photoinduced Kondo effect, providing a potentially new range of applications of devices based on the Kondo effect.

Anisotropic spin model of strong spin-orbit-coupled triangular antiferromagnets

“…In the RZn 3 P 3 , RCd 3 P 3 , RZn 3 As 3 and RCd 3 As 3 materials' family, the rare earth ions, R 3+ , form triangular layers [5][6][7][8] . Since the interlayer separation is much larger than the intralayer lattice constant, one can safely neglect the interlayer coupling.…”

“…The thermodynamic and NMR measurements found that the system remains disordered down to 60mK 3 . More recently, another rareearth triangular antiferromagnet CeCd 3 P 3 was studied experimentally 5 . Although this material remains paramagnetic down to 0.48K and this temperature is probably not very low by the 4f electrons' standard, as we show in Table I, CeCd 3 P 3 and the rare-earth oxy-carbonates R 2 O 2 CO 3 represent new family of rare-earth triangular antiferromagnets that need further investigation [5][6][7][8] .…”

“…More recently, another rareearth triangular antiferromagnet CeCd 3 P 3 was studied experimentally 5 . Although this material remains paramagnetic down to 0.48K and this temperature is probably not very low by the 4f electrons' standard, as we show in Table I, CeCd 3 P 3 and the rare-earth oxy-carbonates R 2 O 2 CO 3 represent new family of rare-earth triangular antiferromagnets that need further investigation [5][6][7][8] . Like the Yb 3+ ion in YbMgGaO 4 , the Ce 3+ ion in CeCd 3 P 3 experiences the same D 3d crystal field and is also described by an effective spin-1/2 Kramers doublet 5 .…”

“…Although this material remains paramagnetic down to 0.48K and this temperature is probably not very low by the 4f electrons' standard, as we show in Table I, CeCd 3 P 3 and the rare-earth oxy-carbonates R 2 O 2 CO 3 represent new family of rare-earth triangular antiferromagnets that need further investigation [5][6][7][8] . Like the Yb 3+ ion in YbMgGaO 4 , the Ce 3+ ion in CeCd 3 P 3 experiences the same D 3d crystal field and is also described by an effective spin-1/2 Kramers doublet 5 . Partly motivated by these experiments, in this paper we consider the generic spin model that generally describes the spin-orbit-entangled Kramers' doublets on the triangular lattice and study the magnetic phase diagram and the magnetic excitation of this new model.…”

Anisotropic transport and optical spectroscopy study on antiferromagnetic triangular latticeEuCd2As2: An interplay between magnetism and charge transport properties

“…It was suggested to be a U(1) quantum spin liquid with a spinon Fermi surface 31,32 . The layered family ReCd 3 Pn 3 (Re=Ce and rare earth elements, Pn=P, As) with rare earth elements Re also forming a triangular lattice were found to host either disordered spin liquid or antiferromagnetic orders at different temperatures 32,33 . The ReCd 3 Pn 3 family has the space group P63/mmc, which resembles in many aspects to the crystal structure studied in the present work.…”