title: Probing the magnetic ground state of single crystalline Ce3TiSb5.
abstract: Motivated by the report of superconductivity in R3TiSb5(R  =  La and Ce) and possibly Nd3TiSb5at  ∼4 K, we grew single crystals of La3TiSb5and Ce3TiSb5by the high-temperature solution method using Sn as a flux. While in both compounds we observed a superconducting transition at 3.7 K for resistivity and low-field magnetization, our data conclusively show that it arose from residual Sn flux present in the single crystals. In particular, the heat capacity data do not present any of the anomalies expected from a bulk superconducting transition. The anisotropic magnetic properties of Ce3TiSb5, crystallizing in a hexagonal P63/mcm structure, were studied in detail. We find that the Ce ions in Ce3TiSb5form a Kondo lattice and exhibited antiferromagnetic ordering at 5.5 K with a reduced moment and a moderately normalized Sommerfeld coefficient of 598 mJ/mol K2. The characteristic single-ion Kondo energy scale was found to be  ∼8 K. The magnetization data were subjected to a crystal electric field (CEF) analysis. The experimentally observed Schottky peak in the 4f-electron heat capacity of Ce3TiSb5was reproduced fairly well by the energy levels derived from the CEF analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai-400005, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thamizhavel
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Dhar
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Provino
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manfrinetti