Field-induced ferromagnetic transition in PrInNi4

Magnetic and electrical properties of new ternary compounds R InNi4 with R=Ce, Pr and Tm have been investigated. The magnetic susceptibility χ and the electrical resistivity ρ show the absence of magnetic order in these systems down to 2 K at low fields. χ of CeInNi4 indicates that the Ce ion is close to Ce4+ state. For PrInNi4, while χ at the field of H=0.1 T shows a characteristic behavior of a nonmagnetic ground state due to a crystal field splitting, the magnetization M for H≥0.75 T reveals the presence of a ferromagnetic transition at Tc∼3 K. Moreover, the M vs. H for T≤4 K exhibits a metamagnetic transition at Hc∼1 T. It is suggested that a significant mixing of the crystal field levels is relevant to the field-induced transition in PrInNi4