Sharp fall of electrical resistance for a small application of magnetic field on a metastable form of a compound, Tb5Si3, under pressure

Abstract

We report an unusual sensitivity of electrical resistivity (rho) to an application of a small magnetic field in an intermetallic compound, Tb5Si3, under pressure. In this compound, there is a magnetic field-induced first-order magnetic transition at 1.8 K. Under pressure, there is a metastable magnetic phase after reducing the field to zero. This metastable phase is relatively of higher rho and interestingly a small magnetic field (less than 2 kOe) in the reverse direction results in a sharp fall of rho to restore virgin state rho. The present finding could be relevant to spintronic applications.