High pressure studies on a canted magnetic compound Ce3Cu3Sb4

Ce3T3Sb4 (T = transition metals such as Au, Pt and Cu) compounds form in the Y3Au3Sb4-type cubic structure. They show a variety of interesting magnetic ground states. For example, Ce3Pt3Sb4 is a narrow gap f-electron system or Kondo insulator where Ce is in valence fluctuating state while Ce3Au3Sb4 is a semiconductor with temperature dependent band gap. Another compound of this system, Ce3Cu3Sb4 orders magnetically at 12K which is high according to the de Gennes scaling and it shows semiconductor like behaviour. Neutron diffraction studies reveal that it has a complicated canted magnetic structure. We have carried out high pressure and high magnetic field studies to probe the nature of magnetic interactions in this system. The magnetization studies show that Tc goes up by about 10% with the application of a pressure of 0.85 GPa. The results are discussed in the context of a one dimensional Kondo necklace theoretical model proposed by Doniach. The magnetization shows a monotonic increase with the magnetic field and the behaviour is found to be similar to that expected in a system with single ion anisotropy. (author)