Cage-related crystal-field effects in the paramagnetic range of PrB6
Abstract
New insights into the paramagnetic range of PrB6 below 50 K are revealed through specific-heat, thermal-expansion and magnetic measurements. The latent heats of the two successive magnetic transitions, together with an improved description of the lattice contribution, enable a detailed determination of the thermal variation of the magnetic entropy. Immediately above the first-order magnetic ordering temperature (TN = 6.7 K), the magnetic entropy per Pr3+ is close to that of a doublet, instead of the triplet crystal-field ground state identified by inelastic neutron scattering. Temperatures in excess of 30 K are required to reach the entropy of the threefold-degenerate ground state. This is reminiscent of the CeB6 case and, similarly, strongly suggests a dynamical splitting of the crystal-field ground state within the boron cage. Further evidence of this splitting is provided by the analysis of the low-temperature paramagnetic susceptibility, which resembles that of a non-magnetic ground state. In addition, a large thermal-expansion anomaly is observed below 20 K, consistent with the expected centrifugal Jahn-Teller effect.
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BibTeX
@misc{amara2026cagerelated,
title = {{Cage-related crystal-field effects in the paramagnetic range of PrB$_6$}},
author = {Mehdi Amara and Christine Opagiste and Natalya Yu. Shitsevalova},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.40176},
eprint = {2610.40176},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40176},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cage-related crystal-field effects in the paramagnetic range of PrB_6
AU - Mehdi Amara
AU - Christine Opagiste
AU - Natalya Yu. Shitsevalova
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.40176
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.40176
AB - New insights into the paramagnetic range of PrB_6 below 50 K are revealed through specific-heat, thermal-expansion and magnetic measurements. The latent heats of the two successive magnetic transitions, together with an improved description of the lattice contribution, enable a detailed determination of the thermal variation of the magnetic entropy. Immediately above the first-order magnetic ordering temperature (T_N = 6.7 K), the magnetic entropy per Pr^3+ is close to that of a doublet, instead of the triplet crystal-field ground state identified by inelastic neutron scattering. Temperatures in excess of 30 K are required to reach the entropy of the threefold-degenerate ground state. This is reminiscent of the CeB_6 case and, similarly, strongly suggests a dynamical splitting of the crystal-field ground state within the boron cage. Further evidence of this splitting is provided by the analysis of the low-temperature paramagnetic susceptibility, which resembles that of a non-magnetic ground state. In addition, a large thermal-expansion anomaly is observed below 20 K, consistent with the expected centrifugal Jahn-Teller effect.
ER -