Single Crystal Growth and Magnetic Properties of Antiferromagnet Ce2Pd3Si5

We succeeded in growing a single crystal of Ce 2 Pd 3 Si 5 with the orthorhombic crystal structure by the Sn-flux method and measured the electrical resistivity, specific heat, magnetic susceptibility and magnetization. The antiferromagnetic ordering was confirmed to occure below T N =7.2 K. The electronic specific heat coefficient was determined as 77 mJ/(K 2 ·mol·Ce). The antiferromagnetic easy-axis was found to be the [001] direction, with an ordered moment of µ s =1.3 µ B /Ce, while [100] and [010] directions are hard-axes in magnetization. We observed a metamagnetic transition at H c =5.7 T for H ∥[001] and a saturation of magnetization above H s =12.1 T. The characteristic magnetic phase diagram was constructed. The crystalline electric field (CEF) scheme was also proposed for Ce 2 Pd 3 Si 5 , where the splitting energies between the ground state and two excited doublets in the CEF scheme are estimated to be 87 and 504 K, respectively.