arXiv · 2504.20149
Easy-plane ferromagnetism in single-crystal ErB$_{2}$ at low temperatures
Abstract
We report a study of single crystals of the hexagonal rare-earth diboride ErB$_{2}$ prepared by means of the self-adjusted flux travelling-solvent floating-zone technique. Measurements of the magnetization, ac susceptibility, specific heat, and electrical resistivity consistently establish ferromagnetic order of the Er$^{3+}$ moments below a second-order phase transition at $T_{c} = 14$~K and a very strong easy-plane anisotropy. Curie--Weiss fits of the ac susceptibility are characteristic of ferromagnetic coupling within the easy hexagonal basal plane, and antiferromagnetic coupling along $\langle001\rangle$. Under magnetic field within the basal plane the magnetization is reminiscent of a soft ferromagnet that is polarized in fields above a few tenth of a Tesla, vanishing hysteresis and negligible in-plane anisotropy. Under field along $\langle001\rangle$, typical hard-axis behavior is observed with the magnetization increasing only weakly up to a spin-flip transition at $\mu_{0}H_{c} = 12$~T. The easy-plane anisotropy emerges below a crossover temperature $T_{x} \approx 50$~K , i.e. a broad paramagnetic temperature range above $T_{c}$ is governed by strongly anisotropic magnetic fluctuations.
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Christoph Resch, Georg Benka, Andreas Bauer, Christian Pfleiderer. 2025-04-28. Easy-plane ferromagnetism in single-crystal ErB$_{2}$ at low temperatures. https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.20149
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