Magnetism in Gallium doped CeFe₂: The martensitic scenario

Ce(Fe_{1-x}Ga_x)_2 compounds with x = 0, 0.01, 0.025 and 0.05 have been investigated to unravel the effect of Ga on the magnetic state of CeFe_2. For the first time, we find that the dynamic antiferromagnetic phase present in CeFe_2 gets stabilized with Ga substitution. The hysteresis loops show that while the compounds with x = 0 and 0.01 show normal behavior, the other two show multiple magnetization steps across the antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition region. The virgin curve is found to lie outside the envelope curve in these two compounds, similar to the observations made in Ru and Re substituted CeFe_2 compounds. Temperature, sweep rate and time dependences of the magnetization show that the compounds with x >=0.025 possess glassy behavior at low temperatures. Various results obtained reveal that these two compounds belong to the martensite family.