Crystal growth and ambient and high pressure study of the reentrant superconductor Tm2Fe3Si5
Abstract
We report single crystal growth of the reentrant superconductor Tm2Fe3Si5, and measurements of the anisotropic static magnetic susceptibility (T) and isothermal magnetization M(H), ac susceptibility ac(T), electrical resistivity (T) and heat capacity C(T) at ambient pressure and ac(T) at high pressure. The magnetic susceptibility along the c-axis c(T) shows a small maximum around 250 K and does not follow the Curie-Weiss behavior while the magnetic susceptibility along the a-axis a(T) follows a Curie-Weiss behavior between 130 K and 300 K with a Weiss temperature θ and an effective magnetic moment μeff which depend on the temperature range of the fit. The easy axis of magnetization is perpendicular to the c-axis and a/c = 3.2 at 1.8 K. The ambient pressure ac(T) and C(T) measurements confirm bulk antiferromagnetic ordering at TN = 1.1 K. The sharp drop in ac below TN is suggestive of the existence of a spin-gap. We observe superconductivity only under applied pressures P≥ 2 kbar. The temperature-pressure phase diagram showing the non-monotonic dependence of the superconducting transition temperature Tc on pressure P is presented.