The electrical and structural properties of NdNiC 2 and PrNiC 2 are examined in single-crystalline samples in order to investigate the interplay of charge-density wave (CDW) and magnetic order in ternary rare-earth nickel carbides, RNiC 2 , where R is a rare-earth element. PrNiC 2 (no magnetic order down to 1.5 K) and NdNiC 2 [antiferromagnetic (AF) transition at 17.2 K] show resistance anomalies at 89 and 121 K, respectively, which are revealed to be CDW transitions by observing X-ray satellite reflections. NdNiC 2 also shows a gradual decrease in both resistivity and CDW amplitude below the Néel temperature. In the AF phase, the magnetoresistance sharply decreases where a ferromagnetic (FM) order occurs, which is realized above the spin-flop magnetic field. These results clearly suggest that the relationships between CDW and magnetic order in RNiC 2 depend on whether the magnetic order is AF or FM.Charge-density wave (CDW) transition is one of the representative phenomena in low-dimensional materials, and is actively investigated in the field of high-T C superconductors. The nesting of low-dimensional Fermi surfaces leads to electronic instability, i.e., Peierls instability, which induces CDW, that is, a periodic charge density modulation coupled to an underlying lattice by the electron-lattice interaction. 1) Since the discovery of CDW transitions in real materials, such as the quasi-1D organic conductor, TTF-TCNQ, 2) and inorganic compounds, K 0:3 MoO 33) and NbSe 3 , 4) peculiar phenomena, such as the dynamics of CDW sliding and low-dimensional fluctuation above the transition temperature, have been intensively studied.The recent target of the study of CDW has changed from the physical property itself to understanding competing phenomena between a CDW and other electronic phases, such as superconductivity 5) and magnetism. In the latter topic, there have been few reports of a clear coupling between a CDW and a magnetic order, although some intermetallic rare-earth compounds in which a CDW and an antiferromagnetic (AF) order coexist, such as Er 5 Ir 4 Si 10 , have been reported. 6,7) Recently, a strong interplay of a CDW and a ferromagnetic (FM) order was reported in one of the ternary rareearth nickel carbides, SmNiC 2 . 8,9) This compound has a CDW transition at 148 K and the CDW is suppressed at 17.7 K, where an FM order occurs. SmNiC 2 belongs to the RNiC 2 (R: rare-earth element) family that crystallizes in the CeNiC 2 -type orthorhombic structure (space group: Amm2). 10) In this system, nickel atoms are not magnetic and rare-earth elements mainly contribute to the magnetic properties showing the character of interacting local magnetic moments through the RKKY interaction. 11) In the early 1990s, magnetic structures in RNiC 2 had been intensively investigated and various magnetic orders had been reported, such as an incommensurate-commensurate AF transition in DyNiC 2 , 12) an FM order in SmNiC 2 , and AF orders in CeNiC 2 and NdNiC 2 . 13) In the 2000s, Murase et al. reported that some RNiC 2 compounds ...
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