Magnetic structure and Kondo lattice behavior in CeVGe3: an NMR and neutron scattering study

Abstract

We present nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), neutron diffraction, magnetization, and transport measurements on a single crystal and powder of CeVGe3. This material exhibits heavy fermion behavior at low temperatures, accompanied by antiferromagnetic (AFM) order below 5.8 K. We find that the magnetic structure is incommensurate with AFM helical structure, characterized by a magnetic modulated propagation vector of (0,0,0.49) with in-plane moments rotating around the c axis. The NMR Knight shift and spin-lattice relaxation rate reveal a coherence temperature T∗∼15K, and the presence of significant antiferromagnetic fluctuations reminiscent of the archetypical heavy fermion compound CeRhIn5. We further identify a metamagnetic transition above Hm∼2.5T for magnetic fields perpendicular to c. We speculate that the magnetic structure in this field-induced phase consists of a superposition with both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic components, which is consistent with the NMR spectrum in this region of the phase diagram. Our results thus indicate that CeVGe3 is a hexagonal structure analog to tetragonal CeRhIn5. ©2023 American Physical Society.