Avoided ferromagnetic quantum critical point: Antiferromagnetic ground state in substituted CeFePO

Abstract

We have investigated single crystals of two substitution series Ce(Ru${}_{1-x}$Fe${}_x$)PO and CeFe(As${}_{1-y}$P${}_y$)O in the vicinity to the quantum critical material CeFePO by means of magnetic-susceptibility and specific-heat measurements. We observe an antiferromagnetic ground state in the vicinity of the quantum critical point, with pronounced metamagnetic transitions for $H\parallel c$, which is the magnetically hard direction. Our results verify that a ferromagnetic quantum critical point is avoided in substituted CeFePO, because we clearly demonstrate that the ferromagnetic ground state changes into an antiferromagnetic one, when approaching the quantum critical point.