Study of the Dirac/Weyl candidates (Ce,Nd)Sb(Se,Te)*

The nonsymmorphic compound CeSbTe [1] was recently shown to have coexisting complex magnetism and Weyl/Dirac states, where an applied magnetic field transforms the magnetic order and potentially provides a switch between different electronic states. Here we present results for other members of this family compounds, including CeSbSe [2], NdSbSe, and NdSbTe. CeSbSe exhibits complex magnetic ordering at T_M = 3 K and the application of a magnetic field results in a cascade of magnetically ordered states for H < 1.8 T which are characterized by fractional integer size steps: i.e., a possible devil’s staircase is observed. NdSbSe and NdSbTe show a low T buildup of magnetic entropy in the heat capacity, also suggesting complex magnetism. These compounds offer an opportunity to study the connection between the complex magnetic orders, Kondo lattices and topological properties.

[1] Leslie M. Schoop et. al., Sci. Adv. 4, eaar2317 (2018).
[2] Kuan-Wen Chen et. al., PRB 96, 014421 (2017).