Sharp fall of electrical resistance for a small application of magnetic field on a metastable form of a compound, Tb5Si3, under pressure

Abstract

We report an unusual sensitivity of electrical resistivity (ρ) to an application of a small magnetic field in an intermetallic compound, Tb 5 Si 3 , under pressure. In this compound, there is a magnetic-field-induced first-order magnetic transition at 1.8 K. Under pressure, there is a metastable magnetic phase after reducing the field to zero. This metastable phase is relatively of higher ρ and interestingly a small magnetic field (< 2 kOe) in the reverse direction results in a sharp fall of ρ to restore virgin state ρ. The present finding could be relevant in spintronic applications.

Solidification and crystal growth of binary Tb5Si3 intermetallics

“…The lattice parameters a¼0.8469 nm, c¼0.6354 nm with c/a¼ 1.333 were determined at room temperature by X-ray powder diffraction of a specimen taken from the single crystal. These values may be compared with literature data from polycrystalline samples a¼ 0.8425(12) nm and c¼0.6333 (8) nm determined at 150 K [8] and a ¼0.8441(4) nm and c¼0.6347(4) nm at room temperature [10]. The Tb concentration of the crystal is (62.270.4) at% Tb which was determined by ICP-OES wet chemical analysis from samples with 50 mg mass of the crystal matrix.…”

“…It was accompanied by a curious behavior with a positive magnetoresistance following the metamagnetic transition. An unusual sensitivity of the electrical resistivity to a small magnetic field under pressure [10] and an influence of pressure on the magnetic behavior have also been detected [11]. Tb 5 Si 3 single crystals are highly desirable for revealing this curious physical behavior and its dependence on crystallographic orientation and on the direction of the applied external field.…”

Competing magnetic interactions and magnetocaloric effect in Ho$_5$Sn$_3$

“…Among the binary and pseudo-binary heavy RE compounds and alloys, Gd 5 Ge 4 based compositions with 5:4 stoichiometry are the most widely studied due to their exotic ground state, metastability, phase coexistence, magneto-structural instability and above all giant MCE 17 . In contrast, the RE 5 X 3 (X is a non-magnetic element) compositions are much less studied [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] . This paper focuses on the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of a Ho-based REI compound Ho 5 Sn 3 .…”

Evolution of a metastable phase with a magnetic phase coexistence phenomenon and its unusual sensitivity to magnetic field cycling in the alloys Tb5 −xLuxSi3(x≤ 0.7)

“…This anomaly was attributed to 'inverse metamagnetism'-a concept not so commonly known among metallic magnets-in which 'magnetic fluctuations' instead of 'ferromagnetic alignments' are favored [1,3] beyond H c . During the course of the investigation of Tb 5 Si 3 under external and chemical pressure [4][5][6], we made many important findings bearing relevance to the concept of EPS. For the parent compound, under ambient pressure conditions, though a strong irreversibility is observed in the plots of the isothermal magnetization (M) and MR versus H , the curve obtained while reversing the field merges with the virgin curve before attaining zero field.…”