DyRh4B4 has been known to crystallize in the primitive tetragonal (pt)-structure and to exhibit a ferromagnetic transition at 12 K, the highest magnetic transition temperature in the entire series of the RRh4B4 materials [1]. We show here that our silicon-added samples of the nominal composition DyRh4B4Si0.2 exhibit superconductivity below Tc ~ 4.5 K and an antiferromagnetic transition below TN ~ 2.7 K. The 12 K transition observed in the pt-DyRh4B4 is completely suppressed. Our annealed samples mainly consist of domains of the chemical composition DyRh3.9B4.2Si0.08. These domains contain two crystallographic phases belonging to the body-centred tetragonal (bct)-structure and the orthorhombic (o)-structure. We have reasons to suggest that superconductivity and antiferromagnetic ordering arise from bct- DyRh4B4 phase and, therefore, coexist below TN ~ 2.7 K.
@article{arxiv.0905.4032,
title = {Si-induced superconductivity and structural transformations in DyRh4B4},
author = {A. Köhler and G. Behr and G. Fuchs and K. Nenkov and L. C. Gupta},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0905.4032},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
11 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in Journal of Alloys and Compounds