Condensed Matter (Dec 2024)

Magnetic and Electronic Inhomogeneity in Sm<sub>1−x</sub>Eu<sub>x</sub>B<sub>6</sub>

  • M. Victoria Ale Crivillero,
  • Priscila F. S. Rosa,
  • Zachary Fisk,
  • Jens Müller,
  • Pedro Schlottmann,
  • Steffen Wirth

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat9040055
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
p. 55

Abstract

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While SmB6 attracts attention as a possible topological Kondo insulator, EuB6 is known to host magnetic polarons that give rise to large magnetoresistive effects above its ferromagnetic order transition. Here, we investigate single crystals of Sm1−xEuxB6 by magnetic and magnetotransport measurements to explore a possible interplay of these two intriguing phenomena, with a focus on the Eu-rich substitutions. Sm0.01Eu0.99B6 exhibits generally similar behavior as EuB6. Interestingly, Sm0.05Eu0.95B6 combines a global antiferromagnetic order with local polaron formation. A pronounced hysteresis is found in the magnetoresistance of Sm0.1Eu0.9B6 at low temperature (T= 1.9 K) and applied magnetic fields between 2.3 and 3.6 T. The latter is in agreement with a phenomenological model that predicts the stabilization of ferromagnetic polarons with an increasing magnetic field within materials with a global antiferromagnetic order.

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