Novel ternary germanide CeRuGe5: Crystal structure and physical properties

Abstract The new ternary intermetallic with high content of germanium, CeRuGe 5 , was found in the course of reinvestigation of the Ce-Ru-Ge system at 700 °C. The compound crystallizes in the tetragonal structure of new type (space group I 4/ mcm ) with the unit cell parameters: a  = 6.1414(6) A, c  = 13.751(3) A, Z = 4, Pearson symbol tI 28. The structure of CeRuGe 5 can be presented as [CeGe 3 ] and [RuGe 2 ] slabs alternating along the tetragonal c -axis. It is shown that the new structure of CeRuGe 5 and the known before structure of Sm 2 Ru 5 Ga 9 are derivatives from the common prototype – HoCoGa 5 . By means of magnetic, heat capacity and electrical transport measurements, the novel compound CeRuGe 5 was established to be a metallic Curie-Weiss paramagnet due to stable 4 f 1 electronic configuration of trivalent Ce ions. No intrinsic long-range magnetic ordering was found down to 1.7 K.