Search

Detailed measurements of the Hall effect in the Ho0.8Lu0.2B12 antiferromagnetic compound (Néel temperature TN = 5.75 K) in magnetic fields up to 80 kOe oriented in the (110) plane at temperatures of 1.9–6.6 K are performed. It is established with the contribution separation procedure that the anisotropic positive contribution, which is responsible for the double inversion of the sign of the Hall resistance, dominates in the antiferromagnetic state of Ho0.8Lu0.2B12 in fields of 30–50 kOe. A sharp decrease in the amplitude of the isotropic negative contribution at the transition to the antiferromagnetic phase is found. The nature of the detected anomalies in the antiferromagnetic metal with dynamic charge stripes and spin-wave component of the magnetic structure is discussed.

Detailed measurements of the Hall effect in the paramagnetic phase of Ho0.8Lu0.2B12 antiferromagnet at the magnetic field up to 80 kOe in the temperature range of 1.9–300 K have been performed. It has been found that the transition to the cage glass phase (T < T * ~ 60 K) is accompanied by the appearance of a positive Hall resistance component in addition to that corresponding to the negative Hall effect. The amplitude and angular dependence of the former depend on the magnitude and direction of the applied magnetic field with respect to the crystallographic axes. The revealed anisotropy of the Hall effect in Ho0.8Lu0.2B12 is attributed to the interaction of charge carriers with dynamic charge stripes.

The high-frequency (60 GHz) electron paramagnetic resonance is studied in HoxLu1−xB12 single crystals at low temperatures (2–80 K) in an applied magnetic field up to 7 T within a wide doping range, 0.01 ≤ x ≤ 1. These compounds are characterized by the presence of a low-temperature cage glass phase with random displacements of magnetic holmium ions from the centrosymmetric position in B12 boron cuboctahedra. For the samples with x ≥ 0.1, it is demonstrated that the electron paramagnetic resonance in the form of a single broad line with a g-factor of about 5 appears in the cage glass phase at T 0.3, the pronounced broadening of the resonance line and a steep decrease in the g-factor related to antiferromagnetic correlations is observed on cooling at T < 30 K. The performed simulation of the electron paramagnetic resonance spectra suggests the dominant role of the exchange interaction effects and positional disorder in determining the characteristic features of spin dynamics in HoxLu1−xB12.

We have tested the conduction band electrons of lanthanum hexaboride that is among the most effective electron-beam sources with one of the highest brightness of thermionic emission. We performed infrared spectroscopic, DC (direct current) resistivity and Hall-effect studies of LaB6 single crystals with various 10B and 11B isotope contents. We find that only a small amount of conduction electrons behave as Drude-type charge carriers while about 70% of the electrons are involved in collective oscillations of electron density coupled to vibrations of both the Jahn-Teller unstable rigid boron cage and rattling modes of La-ions loosely bound to the lattice. We suggest that exactly these non-equilibrium conduction electrons determine the extraordinary low work function of thermoemission in LaB6.

The magnetic properties of the topological Kondo insulator SmB6 are studied in the temperature range T T*, the magnetization qualitatively corresponds to the model of decay of Kondo singlets and is determined by the Pauli paramagnetism, which includes both the linear and nonlinear contributions. In the range T < T*, the Pauli paramagnetism becomes supplemented in the threshold manner by the contribution of localized magnetic moments. The performed estimate of effective magnetic moments arising at T < T* gives anomalously high values μ* ∼ (7–14) μB ion, far exceeding the values μ* ∼ (3–5) μB expected for a separate magnetic Sm3+ ion. This is a signature of the possible spin-polaron nature of localized magnetic moments in the topological Kondo insulator SmB6.

The magnetic phase diagram of Tm1–xYbxB12 antiferromagnets is determined from the specific heat measurements performed at low and ultralow temperatures (0.07–10 K). Precise experimental studies of the features of the crystal structure at room temperature suggest that a metal−insulator transition occurring in Tm1–xYbxB12 with the growth of x is accompanied by a significant (by a factor of 2–6) increase in the amplitude of atomic displacements in the boron and rare-earth sublattices. There is also a signature of an instability arising in the electron configuration of ytterbium ions at this transition. At room temperature, near the quantum critical point at xc ≈ 0.25, anomalies in the structural characteristics of dodecaborides under study are observed.

The specific heat of Ho0.01Lu0.99B12 single crystals with dynamic charge stripes is studied at low and ultralow temperatures (0.07–20 K) in applied magnetic fields of 0–9 Т. It is shown that additional contributions to the specific heat appear at magnetic fields exceeding 1 T. These contributions depend on the orientation of the magnetic field and can be as large as 15% of the specific heat related to the subsystem of holmium ions in the cubic crystal field.

The electron spin resonance has been measured for the first time both in the paramagnetic phase of the metallic GdB6 antiferromagnet (TN = 15.5K) and in the antiferromagnetic state (T < TN). In the paramagnetic phase below T* ~ 70 K, the material is found to exhibit a pronounced increase in the resonance linewidth and a shift in the g-factor, which is proportional to the linewidth Δg(T) ~ ΔH(T). Such behavior is not characteristic of antiferromagnetic metals and seems to be due to the effects related to displacements of Gd3+ ions from the centrosymmetric positions in the boron cage. The transition to the antiferromagnetic phase is accompanied by an abrupt change in the position of resonance (from μ0H0 ≈ 1.9 T to μ0H0 ≈ 3.9 T at ν = 60 GHz), after which a smooth evolution of the spectrum occurs, resulting eventually in the formation of the spectrum consisting of four resonance lines. The magnetic field dependence of the frequency of the resonant modes ω0(H0) obtained in the range of 28–69 GHz is well interpreted within the model of ESR in an antiferromagnet with the easy anisotropy axis ω/γ = (H 0 2 +2HAHE)1/2, where HE is the exchange field and HA is the anisotropy field. This provides an estimate for the anisotropy field, HA ≈ 800 Oe. This value can result from the dipole−dipole interaction related to the mutual displacement of Gd3+ ions, which occurs at the antiferromagnetic transition.

The transverse magnetoresistance of Ho0.8Lu0.2B12 dodecaboride with a cage glass structure is studied at low (2–10 K) temperatures. It is demonstrated that the isotropic negative magnetoresistance in this antiferromagnet is dominant within the broad temperature range near TN ≈ K. This contribution to the total magnetoresistance is due to the scattering of charge carriers by nanoclusters formed by Но3+ ions, and it can be scaled in the ρ = f(μ2effH2/T2 ) representation. It is found that the magnetoresistance anisotropy above (about 15% at 80 kOe) is due to the positive contribution, which achieves maximum values at the magnetic field direction close to H ║ [001]. The anisotropy of the charge carrier scattering is interpreted in terms of the cooperative dynamic Jahn−Teller effect at В12 clusters.

By measuring room temperature infrared (40–35000 cm–1) reflectivity of metallic LuB12 single crystals with different isotopic compositions (natB, 10B, 11B), we find that to model the spectrum we had to introduce, additionally to Drude free-carrier component, a broad excitation with unusually large dielectric contribution (Δe = 8000 ± 4000), which is characterized by a non-Lorentzian lineshape. It is suggested that the origin of the excitation is connected with cooperative dynamics of Jahn–Teller active B12 molecules producing quasilocal vibrations (rattling modes) of caged lutetium ions. The coupling of the Lu3+ rattling motions with the charge carriers of conduction band is proposed to be the reason of strongly damped character of the excitation.

The specific heat of the ZrB12 compound in the normal and superconducting states (T C ≈ 6 K) has been studied in the 1.9–7 K temperature range for high-quality single crystals with different relative contents of boron isotopes. For Zr10B12, ZrnatB12, and Zr11B12 dodecaborides, the electron density of states and the electronphonon coupling constant, λe-ph ∼ 0.4, are found. The dependence of the thermodynamic and upper critical fields, as well as of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter (κ = 0.8–1.14) on temperature and isotope composition is determined. The results suggest the existence of the magnetic field induced phase transition at T* = 4–5 K, which is not related to the transition from type-I to type-II superconductivity. The possibilities of the existence of two-gap superconductivity and a structural phase transition at T* in zirconium dodecaboride are discussed.

The behavior of the specific heat near the quantum critical point x ∼ 0.3 in the Tm1 − x Yb x B12 system has been studied. Detailed measurements have been performed on high-quality single-crystalline Tm0.74Yb0.26B12 samples within a wide temperature range of 1.9–300 K in a magnetic field up to 9 T. The temperature dependence of the magnetic contribution to the specific heat has a logarithmic divergence of the form C/T ∼ lnT at T < 4 K, which can be attributed to the quantum critical behavior regime suppressed by the external magnetic field. The Schottky anomaly of the magnetic contribution to the specific heat in Tm0.74Yb0.26B12 has been analyzed.

In isotopically pure praseodymium hexaboride (Pr11B6) single-crystal samples, the transverse magnetoresistance Δρ/ρ has been measured in a temperature range of 2–20 K in magnetic fields up to 80 kOe. The field and angular dependences Δρ/ρ(H, ϕ, T0) reveal a new magnetic phase in the AFM state of Pr11B6 which is observable only for the external magnetic field orientation in a narrow angular range near H ‖ 〈110〉. The data remove the previous contradictions in the Pr11B6 magnetic phase diagram representation and can be explained under the assumption that the spin-polarized regions (ferrons) are involved in the formation of the complex magnetic structure in the Pr11B6 AFM state in the 5d band in the vicinity of the rare-earth ions.

The magnetic and transport characteristics of substitutional solid solutions of the Tm1−xYbxB12 rare earth dodecaborides have been investigated. The measurements performed in the wide temperature range 1.8−300 K on the high-quality single-crystalline samples make it possible to conclude that as x increases, antiferromagnetic instability develops with the quantum critical point (TN = 0) near x = 0.3 and relevant dielectrization of the electron structure in the range 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.8 takes place. With the results of the thermoelectric measurements in Tm1−xYbxB12, the activation energy values and their dependence on x have been determined.

The angular dependences of the magnetization and Hall resistance have been investigated by the method of the sample rotation in the magnetic field in the high-quality single-crystal samples in the paramagnetic and magnetically ordered phases of CeB6 in the magnetic field up to 60 kOe. It has been shown that, as CeB6 undergoes the transition from the antiferromagnetic modulated phase to the so-called antiferroquadrupolar phase, the easy-magnetization axis in the [110] plane changes from 〈100〉 to 〈110〉. The magnetic field dependences of the anisotropic component of the magnetization differ radically in these magnetically ordered phases. The analysis provides evidence in favor of the formation of a state with the spin density wave (SDW phase) in the temperature range T N ≈ 2.3 K < T < T Q ≈ 3.3 K in CeB6.