Anand, V.K.; Dhaka, R.S.; Lee, Y.; Harmon, B.N.; Kaminski, A.; Johnston, D.C.: Physical properties of metallic antiferromagnetic CaCo1.86As2 single crystals. Physical Review B 89 (2014), p. 214409/1-17
10.1103/PhysRevB.89.214409
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Abstract:
X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), magnetic susceptibility 𝜒, isothermal magnetization 𝑀, heat capacity 𝐶p, and in-plane electrical resistivity 𝜌 measurements as a function of temperature 𝑇 and magnetic field 𝐻 are presented for CaCo1.86As2 single crystals. The electronic structure is probed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements of CaCo1.86As2 and by full-potential linearized augmented-plane-wave calculations for the supercell Ca8Co15As16 (CaCo1.88As2 ). Our XRD crystal structure refinement is consistent with the previous combined refinement of x-ray and neutron powder diffraction data showing a collapsed-tetragonal ThCr2Si2 -type structure with 7(1)% vacancies on the Co sites corresponding to the composition CaCo1.86As2. The anisotropic 𝜒(𝑇) data are consistent with the magnetic neutron diffraction data of Quirianale et al. that demonstrate the presence of A-type collinear antiferromagnetic order below the Néel temperature 𝑇N=52 (1) K with the easy axis being the tetragonal 𝑐 axis. However, no clear evidence from the 𝜌(𝑇) and 𝐶p(𝑇) data for a magnetic transition at 𝑇N is observed. A metallic ground state is demonstrated from the band calculations and the 𝜌(𝑇) , 𝐶p(𝑇) , and ARPES data, and spin-polarized calculations indicate a competition between the A-type AFM and FM ground states. The 𝐶p(𝑇) data exhibit a large Sommerfield electronic coefficient reflecting a large density of states at the Fermi energy 𝒟(𝐸F) that is enhanced compared with the band structure calculation where the bare 𝒟(𝐸F) arises from Co 3𝑑 bands. At 1.8 K, the 𝑀(𝐻) data for 𝐻∥𝑐 exhibit a well-defined first-order spin-flop transition at an applied field of 3.5 T. The small ordered moment of ≈ 0.3𝜇B /Co obtained from the 𝑀(𝐻) data at low 𝑇 , the large exchange enhancement of 𝜒 and the lack of a self-consistent interpretation of the 𝜒(𝑇) and 𝑀(𝐻,𝑇) data in terms of a local moment Heisenberg model together indicate that the magnetism of CaCo1.86As2 is itinerant.