Physical properties and crystal chemistry of Ce2Ga12Pt

Single crystals of the new ternary compound Ce2Ga12Pt were prepared by the self-flux technique. The crystal structure with the space group P4/nbm was established from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data and presents a derivative of the LaGa6Ni0.6 prototype. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show Curie-Weiss behaviour due to local Ce^3+ moments. At high temperatures, the magnetic anisotropy is dominated by the crystal-electric-field (CEF) effect with the easy axis along the crystallographic c direction. Ce2Ga12Pt undergoes two antiferromagnetic phase transitions at T_N,1 = 7.3K and T_N,2 = 5.5K and presents several metamagnetic transitions for the magnetic field along c. Specific-heat measurements prove the bulk nature of these magnetic transitions and reveal a doublet CEF ground state. The 4f contribution to the resistivity shows a broad maximum at T_max ~ 85K due to Kondo scattering off the CEF ground state and excited levels.