Anisotropic magnetic behavior in CeCrSb3

We report the single crystal growth, anisotropic dc magnetic susceptibility χ(T)χ(T), isothermal magnetization M(H)M(H), electrical resistivity ρ(T)ρ(T) and heat capacity C(T)C(T) measurements of a layered compound CeCrSb3. The crystal exhibits ferromagnetic ordering below 115 K due to ordering of Cr spins. The magnetic properties are anisotropic in this orthorhombic system with χb/χa=8χb/χa=8 below 5 K. Unlike all previous heat capacity measurements in both poly and single crystalline samples of RCrSb3, one observes a well-defined heat capacity anomaly at TCTC in this crystal. The ρ(T)ρ(T) and C(T)C(T) measurements also confirm the anisotropic bulk ferromagnetic ordering at TC=115K. In addition, the presence of Ce ion enriches the magnetic phase diagram of CeCrSb3 compared to that of LaCrSb3. At high fields the magnetization along c  -axis saturates to 2.2μB/f.u., a value much higher than saturation moment of Cr (1.5μB/f.u.) in LaCrSb3, suggesting magnetic ordering of Ce3+Ce3+ ions, at high fields.