Study of the ferromagnetic quantum phase transition in Ce$_{3-x}$Mg$_x$Co$_{9}$

Abstract

The Ce$_{3-x}$Mg$_x$Co$_{9}$ system evolves from a Pauli paramagnetic ground state for $x = 0$ to a ferromagnetic ground state for $x\approx0.80$ in single phase, polycrystalline samples [Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 024023 (2018)]. In order to better understand this behavior, single crystalline samples of Ce$_{3-x}$Mg$_x$Co$_{9}$ for \textit{x} = 0.01, 0.16, 0.24, 0.35, 0.43 and 0.50 were grown using the flux growth technique, and electrical transport and magnetic properties were studied. The \textit{T}$_C$-\textit{x} phase diagram we infer shows that the system has a quantum phase transition near \textit{x} = 0.35, transforming to a ferromagnetic ground state.