Rare-earth transition-metal borides have attracted much interest because of their fascinating physical properties. Depending on the combination of metals and the crystal structure, boride materials were shown to exhibit superconductivity, heavy-fermion behavior, various magnetic orderings, valence fluctuation, and magnetocaloric effect. The series RCo4B4 shows a change from the NdCo4B4 to CeCo4B4 structure type as the atomic number of the rare-earth element increases [1]. This change is accompanied by evolution from ferromagnetism to antiferromagnetism. To understand the role of the rare-earth element in defining the magnetic properties of these materials, a series of compounds La1�xGdxCo4B4 and Sm1�xGdxCo4B4 have been synthesized by arc-melting technique. Our preliminary results indicate that the isoelectronic substitutions in the rare-earth sublattice lead to more complicated magnetic behavior compared with the ternary congeners. We elucidate magnetostructural correlations in these series and justify the observed trends based on quantum-chemical calculations of the electronic band structure.

Investigation of structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of   RCo<sub>4</sub>B<sub>4</sub> (R = rare earth)

244th National Meeting (2012)

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Investigation of structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of RCo4B4 (R = rare earth)

Investigation of structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of RCo₄B₄ (R = rare earth)