Antiferromagnetic order in CeIn3-xSnx studied by muon spin relaxation

• Published in: Journal of physics. Conference series Vol. 150; no. 4; p. 042009
• Main Authors: Arndt, J, Stockert, O, Schneidewind, A, Andreica, D, Baines, C, Caroca-Canales, N, Geibel, C, Loewenhaupt, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.03.2009
• Subjects: Antiferromagnetism; Critical point; Damping; Depolarization; Fermions; Low temperature; Magnetic induction; Muon spin relaxation; Neutron scattering; Physics; Single crystals; Tin
• ISSN: 1742-6596; 1742-6588; 1742-6596
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/150/4/042009

The antiferromagnetic order in the cubic heavy-fermion compound CeIn3-xSnx can be suppressed by Sn doping until a quantum critical point is reached at xc 0.67. Thermodynamic measurements indicate changes to the simple magnetic order for x > 0.2, which is corroborated by the fact that neutron scattering experiments failed in observing signatures of the magnetic order for x > 0. We performed muon spin relaxation measurements in zero magnetic field (ZF-μSR) on single crystals of CeIn3-xSnx with x 0.2; 0.4; 0.55. The spectra for x 0.2 can be fitted by a Gaussian Kubo-Toyabe function with exponential depolarization, whereas the damping in the case of x 0.55 has Lorentzian shape. The data for x 0.4 are represented best by a superposition of Gaussian and Lorentzian damping. For all investigated Sn concentrations the muon spin depolarization rate is high at low temperatures and decreases towards TN. Our measurements demonstrate that magnetic order is present in CeIn3-xSnx also for higher Sn content (x ≤ 0.2) and that the distribution of internal fields broadens with increasing x.