Complex High-field Magnetic Behavior of TbCoIn5 Single-crystal

Abstract

A single-crystal of TbCoIn5 has been grown by the flux technique and studied by means of specific heat and magnetization measurements in wide ranges of temperature and magnetic field. The obtained results can be conceived with antiferromagnetic ordering below TN = 30 K. Anomalies observed in specific heat data clearly manifest the existence of two (or three) magnetic phases appearing consecutively with decreasing temperature in a narrow temperature interval below TN. New anomalies indicating new emerging magnetic phases are generated when applying magnetic field higher than 4 T along the c-axis (apparently the easy magnetization axis) . Characteristic temperatures of anomalies are gradually decreasing with increasing field. This evolution B-T of the magnetic-phase space and also the observed low-temperature Devil staircase magnetization curve in fields applied along c reflect a complex hierarchy of exchange interactions in TbCoIn5.PACS : 75.50.Ee, 75.30.Kz