We present a study of electrical transport properties of RBi2 (R = La, Ce) under hydrostatic pressure up to ∼ 2.5 GPa. These measurements are complemented by thermodynamic measurements of the specific heat on CeBi2 at different pressures up to 2.55 GPa. For CeBi2, we find a moderate increase of the antiferromagnetic transition, TN, from 3.3 K to 4.4 K by pressures up to 2.55 GPa. Notably, resistance measurements for both CeBi2 and LaBi2 show signatures of superconductivity for pressures above ∼ 1.7 GPa. However, the absence of superconducting feature in specific heat measurements for CeBi2 indicates that superconductivity in CeBi2 (and most likely LaBi2 as well) is not bulk and likely originates from traces of Bi flux, either on the surface of the plate-like samples, or trapped inside the sample as laminar inclusions.
@article{arxiv.1907.08645,
title = {Physical properties of $R$Bi$_2$ ($R=$La, Ce) under pressure},
author = {Li Xiang and Elena Gati and Kathryn Neilson and Sergey L. Bud'ko and Paul C. Canfield},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.08645},
year = {2019}
}