Eur. Phys. J. B 42, 205-217 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00373-8

Temperature and field dependence of the magnetic properties of Nd_2-xCe_xCuO₄

¹ Institut Laue-Langevin, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
² Max-Planck-Institut für Physik Komplexer Systeme, Nöthnizerstrasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany
³ Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Glienickerstrasse 100, 14109 Berlin, Germany
⁴ Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a chatt@ill.fr

Received: 9 April 2004
Published online: 14 December 2004

Abstract

We have investigated the magnetic ordering of NdCe_xCuO₄ for x = 0, 0.09, 0.13, 0.15 and 0.18 by neutron diffraction at low temperatures down to 33 mK and under magnetic field up to 5 tesla applied along [ 1,-1,0] crystallographic direction. At zero applied magnetic field Cu magnetic sublattice orders at , 210, 130 and 105 K for x = 0, 0.09, 0.13, 0.15, respectively. No long range magnetic order of the Cu could be detected for x = 0.18. The magnetic order of Nd was found in all samples, with a gradual increase of the polarized magnetic moment with decreasing temperature, saturating around 1 K. Hyperfine induced nuclear polarization of the Nd nuclear spin has been observed below about 400 mK for samples with x = 0, 0.13, 0.15 and 0.18. Field variation of the intensities of the principal and superstructure reflections of NdCe_xCuO₄ at millikelvin temperatures shows a field-induced second-order double-k to single-k phase transition at and 0.56 tesla for samples with x = 0 and 0.15, respectively at T = 50 mK. We have also investigated the polarization of the Nd electronic sublattice due to the field of the Cu sublattice by the element specific X-ray resonant magnetic scattering investigation with synchrotron radiation.