Novel ternary cerium-rich intermetallic compound Ce11Ru3.83In9: Crystal structure and low-temperature physical properties

The formation of a novel intermetallic compound with high content of cerium, Ce11Ru3.83In9, was established in a systematic investigation of the Ce-Ru-In ternary system. The crystal structure of this phase was revealed by a single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiment to be of the Nd11Pd4In9-type: orthorhombic space group Cmmm, the lattice parameters a = 14.9523(10) Å, b = 22.0133(15) Å, c = 3.8240(2) Å, Z = 2. By means of low-temperature magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, electrical resistivity and magnetoresistivity measurements, Ce11Ru3.83In9 was found to exhibit localized magnetism due to trivalent Ce ions, with a ferromagnetic-like long-range ordering below 6.3 K. The likely nature of the magnetic structure is a ferrimagnetic arrangement of the cerium magnetic moments sited in the five independent sublattices in the crystallographic unit cell. The characteristic feature of Ce11Ru3.83In9, reported before also for the isostructural phases Ce11Ni4In9 and Ce11Pd4In9, is strong crystalline electric field effect. The novel compound exhibits metallic conductivity with some contribution of spin-flip Kondo scattering.