Crystal and electronic structure and magnetic properties of CeRhPb

The new intermetallic cerium compound CeRhPb was synthesized by arc melting and studied by means of X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. The crystal structure determined from the single-crystal X-ray data is of the ZrNiAl type (space group P6¯2m). The compound was found to be a Pauli paramagnet with 4f0 ground state of the Ce atoms. The ab-initio band structure calculations performed without and with spin polarization confirmed the nonmagnetic character of the plumbide studied.