Phenomenological theory of a scalar electronic order: application to skutterudite PrFe4P12

Abstract

By phenomenological Landau analysis, it is shown that a scalar order parameter with the point-group symmetry ${\Gamma }_{1g}$ explains most properties associated with the phase transition in PrFe${}_4$P${}_{12}$ at 6.5 K. The scalar-order model reproduces magnetic and elastic properties in PrFe${}_4$P${}_{12}$ consistently such as (i) the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility and elastic constant at the transition temperature, (ii) anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility in the presence of uniaxial pressure, and (iii) the anomaly in the elastic constant in magnetic field. An Ehrenfest relation is derived which relates the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility to that of the elastic constant at the transition.

16 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (2)

• On the Symmetry of Low-Field Ordered Phase of PrFe4P12 : 31P NMR
• Scalar order: possible candidate for order parameters in skutterudites

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Anomalous Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Heavy-Fermion PrFe4P12