NMR investigation of spin fluctuations in the itinerant-electron magnetic compoundSr1−xCaxCo2P2

We took $^{31}\text{P}$ NMR measurements of mainly paramagnetic phase ${\mathrm{Sr}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Ca}}_{x}{\mathrm{Co}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ ($0\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}0.5$) to reveal the itinerant-electron metamagnetic transition, and of its magnetically ordered phase ($0.7\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}1$), and characterized their spin fluctuations by estimating the spin fluctuation parameter ${T}_{0}$ corresponding to the width of the spin fluctuation in the spectrum in frequency space. ${\mathrm{SrCo}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ has a quasi-two-dimensional uncollapsed tetragonal (ucT) cell without interlayer P-P bonds, whereas ${\mathrm{CaCo}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$ has a three-dimensional collapsed tetragonal (cT) cell with P-P bonds. The $ab$-in-plane component of ${T}_{0}$ is much larger than the out-of-plane component in ${\mathrm{SrCo}}_{2}{\mathrm{P}}_{2}$. As $x$ increases from 0 to 0.5, the in-plane component of ${T}_{0}$ decreases proportionally with the metamagnetic transition field. In the antiferromagnetic cT phase ($0.7\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}1$), ${T}_{0}$ is constant and spin fluctuations show an isotropic character in contrast to their behavior in the paramagnetic ucT phase ($0\ensuremath{\le}x\ensuremath{\le}0.5$). These results indicate that the in-plane spin fluctuations due to the quasi-two-dimensional crystal structure play a significant role in the metamagnetic transition of this system.