Investigation of the commensurate magnetic structure in the heavy-fermion compound CePt 2 In 7 using magnetic resonant x-ray diffraction
In this paper, we investigated the magnetic structure of the heavy-fermion compound CePt 2 In 7 below T N = 5.34 (2) K using magnetic resonant x-ray diffraction at ambient pressure. The magnetic order is characterized by a commensurate propagation vector k 1/2 = (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) with spins lying in the basal plane. Our measurements did not reveal the presence of an incommensurate order propagating along the high-symmetry directions in reciprocal space but cannot exclude other incommensurate modulations or weak scattering intensities. The observed commensurate order can be described equivalently by either a single-k structure or by a multi-k structure. Furthermore we explain how a commensurate-only ordering may explain the broad distribution of internal fields observed in nuclear quadrupolar resonance experiments [Sakai et al., Phys. Rev. B 83, 140408 (2011)] that was previously attributed to an incommensurate order. We also report powder x-ray diffraction showing that the crystallographic structure of CePt 2 In 7 changes monotonically with pressure up to P = 7.3 GPa at room temperature. The determined bulk modulus B 0 = 81.1 (3) GPa is similar to those of the Ce-115 family. Broad diffraction peaks confirm the presence of pronounced strain in polycrystalline samples of CePt 2 In 7 . Lastly, we discuss how strain effects can lead to different electronic and magnetic properties between polycrystalline and single crystal samples.