Magnetic anisotropy of YbNi4P2

Abstract

We report on transport and magnetic measurements between 1.8 and 400 K on single crystalline YbNi4P2, which was recently reported to be a heavy fermion system with a low lying ferromagnetic transition at T_C=0.17 K, based on data from polycrystals. The tetragonal crystal structure of YbNi4P2 presents quasi-one-dimensional Yb chains along the c direction. Here we show that at high temperatures, the magnetic anisotropy of YbNi4P2 is dominated by the crystal electrical field effect with an Ising-type behaviour, which gets more pronounced towards lower temperatures. The electrical resistivity also reflects the strong anisotropy of the crystal structure and favours transport along c, the direction of the Yb chains.