Magnetic and magneto-functional behavior of a Fe-doped MnNiGe alloy with nominal composition Mn$_{0.85}$Fe$_{0.15}$NiGe have been investigated in ambient as well as in high pressure condition. The alloy undergoes first order martensitic phase transition (MPT) around 200 K and also shows large conventional magnetocaloric effect (MCE) ($Delta S$ $sim$ -21 J/kg-K for magnetic field ($H$) changing from 0-50 kOe) around the transition in ambient condition. Application of external hydrostatic pressure ($P$) results a shift in MPT towards the lower temperature and a clear decrease in the saturation moment of the alloy at 5 K. The peak value of MCE is also found to decrease with increasing external $P$ ($sim$ 18 J/kg-K decrease in $Delta S$ has been observed for $P$ = 12.5 kbar). The most interesting observation is the occurance of exchange bias effect (EBE) on application of external $P$. The competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interaction in presence of external $P$ plays the pivotal role towards the observation of $P$ induced EBE.
We present a phenomenological analysis of the magnetoelastic properties of CeCo$_{0.85}$Fe$_{0.15}$Si at temperatures close to the Neel transition temperature $T_N$. Using a Landau functional we provide a qualitative description of the thermal expansion, magnetostriction, magnetization and specific heat data. We show that the available experimental results [Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 28 346003 (2016)] are consistent with the presence of a structural transition at $T_sgtrsim T_N$ and a strong magnetoelastic coupling. The magnetoelastic coupling presents a Janus-faced effect: while the structural transition is shifted to higher temperatures as the magnetic field is increased, the resulting striction at low temperatures decreases. The strong magnetoelastic coupling and the proximity of the structural transition to the onset temperature for magnetic fluctuations, suggest that the transition could be an analogue of the tetragonal to orthorhombic observed in Fe-based pcnictides.
Recent interest in topological nature in condensed matter physics has revealed the essential role of Berry curvature in anomalous Hall effect (AHE). However, since large Hall response originating from Berry curvature has been reported in quite limited materials, the detailed mechanism remains unclear at present. Here, we report the discovery of a large AHE triggered by a pressure-induced magnetic phase transition in elemental $alpha$-Mn. The AHE is absent in the non-collinear antiferromagnetic phase at ambient pressure, whereas a large AHE is observed in the weak ferromagnetic phase under high pressure despite the small averaged moment of $sim 0.02 mu_B$/Mn. Our results indicate that the emergence of the AHE in $alpha$-Mn is governed by the symmetry of the underlying magnetic structure, providing a direct evidence of a switch between a zero and non-zero contribution of the Berry curvature across the phase boundary. $alpha$-Mn can be an elemental and tunable platform to reveal the role of Berry curvature in AHE.
We studied the evolution of superconductivity (sc) and antiferromagnetism (afm) in the heavy fermion compound CePt_3Si with hydrostatic pressure. We present a pressure-temperature phase diagram established by electrical transport measurements. Pressure shifts the superconducting transition temperature, T_c, to lower temperatures. Antiferromagnetism is suppressed at a critical pressure P_c=0.5 GPa.
The ground-state magnetic properties of hexagonal equiatomic alloy of nominal composition Mn_{0.8}Fe_{0.2}NiGe were investigated through dc magnetization and heat capacity measurements. The alloy undergoes first order martensitic transition below 140 K with simultaneous development of long range ferromagnetic ordering from the high temperature paramagnetic phase. The undoped compound MnNiGe has an antiferromagnetic ground state and it shows martensitic like structural instability well above room temperature. Fe doping at the Mn site not only brings down the martensitic transition temperature, it also induces ferromagnetism in the sample. Our study brings out two important aspects regarding the sample, namley (i) the observation of exchange bias at low temperature, and (ii) spin glass like ground state which prevails below the martensitic and magnetic transition points. In addition to the observed usual relaxation behavior the spin glass state is confirmed by zero field cooled memory experiment, thereby indicating cooperative freezing of spin and/or spin clusters rather than uncorrelated dynamics of superparamagnetic like spin clusters. We believe that doping disorder can give rise to some islands of antiferromagnetic clusters in the otherwise ferromagnetic background which can produce interfacial frustration and exchange pinning responsible for spin glass and exchange bias effect. A comparison is made with doped rare-earth manganites where similar phase separation can lead to glassy ground state.
We report on the observation of temperature and field dependent anomalous Nernst effect (ANE) in Ni-rich bulk Ni-Co-Mn-Sn full Heusler alloy. A large change in the transverse Nernst coefficient (N) is obtained across the first order magnetostructural transition from a tetragonal martensite to a cubic austenite phase. The saturation of ANE and magnetic data appear to depend largely on the magnetic anisotropy of the device. Such change in the Nernst co-efficient may prove to be useful for switching applications controlled by temperature and magnetic field changes.