High-pressure synthesis of a new ferromagnetic compound, CrGa2Sb2

A new intermetallic compound, CrGa2Sb2, has been synthesized by a direct reaction from Cr and GaSb at 6.3 GPa and 600 °C using a belt-type high-pressure apparatus. The compound crystallizes into an orthorhombic MnGe4-type structure with the space group Iba2 (no. 45). The structure was refined by the Rietveld analysis of the powder X-ray diffraction data and the lattice constant was determined to be a = 1.1781(5) nm, b = 0.5968(2) nm, c = 0.5902(2) nm. The structure consists of -Cr-Cr-Cr- linear chains parallel to the c-axis. The compound exhibits an itinerant-electron ferromagnetic behavior with the Curie temperature of 345 K.