VP14-03 Magnetic and electrical transport properties of a prospective altermagnet NdB2C2
Creators: Mohd Anas
Mason Pulse and  Parashu Kharel
Publisher: name: IEEE
Year: 2025

The RB2C2 compounds have tetragonal crystal structure, can exhibit antiferroquadrupolar ordering, in addition to the antiferromagnetic ordering, depending on the type of rare-earth elements. The rare-earth ions are present in between the covalent-bonded boron and carbon layers. Recently, this material has also been suggested to be a potential candidate for altermagnetism [1].We have studied the structural, magnetic, and electrical transport properties of the polycrystalline NdB2C2 material prepared by arc-melting and annealing. It has a tetragonal crystal structure with space group P4/mbm. The lattice parameters are found to be a = b = 5.3561(23) Å and c = 3.8080(22) Å. The as-prepared sample shows significant texturing/preferred orientation which can be reduced by appropriate heat treatment. The magnetization measurements (M vs. T) on the annealed polycrystalline sample reveal its paramagnetic nature at room temperature and the anti-ferromagnetic ordering of the Nd-moments near 9 K. The magnetic moment due to Nd from the analysis of the magnetization data using the Curie-Weiss law has been found to be 3.7μB/f.u. This value is in agreement with the theoretically expected value for Nd3+ moments. In addition to the antiferromagnetic transition at 9K, we found the signature of additional field-dependent transitions in the magnetization isotherm measured at 2K. The resistivity (ρ) vs temperature (T) measurements shown in figure 1 corroborate the magnetic transition seen in the M-T data, and also revealing the metallic nature of the material. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant no. DE-SC0024284.References: [1] L. Bai et al., Altermagnetism: Exploring New Frontiers in Magnetism and Spintronics, (2024) 1–49. http://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02123.
The RB2C2 compounds have tetragonal crystal structure, can exhibit antiferroquadrupolar ordering, in addition to the antiferromagnetic ordering, depending on the type of rare-earth elements. The rare-earth ions are present in between the covalent-bonded boron and carbon layers. Recently, this material has also been suggested to be a potential candidate for altermagnetism [1].We have studied the structural, magnetic, and electrical transport properties of the polycrystalline NdB2C2 material prepared by arc-melting and annealing. It has a tetragonal crystal structure with space group P4/mbm. The lattice parameters are found to be a = b = 5.3561(23) Å and c = 3.8080(22) Å. The as-prepared sample shows significant texturing/preferred orientation which can be reduced by appropriate heat treatment. The magnetization measurements (M vs. T) on the annealed polycrystalline sample reveal its paramagnetic nature at room temperature and the anti-ferromagnetic ordering of the Nd-moments near 9 K. The magnetic moment due to Nd from the analysis of the magnetization data using the Curie-Weiss law has been found to be 3.7μB/f.u. This value is in agreement with the theoretically expected value for Nd3+ moments. In addition to the antiferromagnetic transition at 9K, we found the signature of additional field-dependent transitions in the magnetization isotherm measured at 2K. The resistivity (ρ) vs temperature (T) measurements shown in figure 1 corroborate the magnetic transition seen in the M-T data, and also revealing the metallic nature of the material. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant no. DE-SC0024284.References: [1] L. Bai et al., Altermagnetism: Exploring New Frontiers in Magnetism and Spintronics, (2024) 1–49. http://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02123.