Investigation of the elastic properties of UNI2Si2 as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and pressure

Abstract

It is now well-established that the strong anisotropy in the magnetic properties of the intermetallic compounds UT2Si2, where T stands for a transition metal, is responsible for their rich magnetic phase diagram. However, within that series of compounds, UNi2Si2 is one that shows an unusual sequence of magnetically ordered states. Thus, to better understand its unusual properties, we have investigated the elastic properties of UNi2Si2 as a function of temperature, magnetic field, and pressure. In all three magnetic phases, our measurements indicate that the sound-velocity temperature dependence is dominated by the magnetoelastic coupling. Moreover, the analysis of the temperature dependence for the incommensurate longitudinal spin-density wave phase is consistent with a critical exponent β = 0.38 ± 0.01. We also present the magnetic phase diagram for UNi2Si2 obtained at 0 and 8 kbar. Our investigation reveals that the triple-point coordinates (Tp, Hp) decrease with pressure at a rate of dTp/dP = –0.1 K/kbar and dHp/dP = –0.1 T/kbar, respectively. PACS Nos.: 75.30.kz, 62.20.Dc, 62.50.+p, 75.40.Cx