Crystal structure and magnetic behavior in CeAu2Si2 and CeAu4Si2*

Interest in Ce-based compounds of systems like CeCu2Si2, CePd2Si2 and CeRu2Si2 has attracted much interest due to magnetic ordering, heavy Fermion behavior and superconductivity. This work is a comparative study of crystal structure and properties of CeAuxSi2 flux-grown crystals with x=2, 4. For CeAuxSi2 system, we have studied structure and anisotropic field- and temperature-dependent magnetization M(H, T). The single-crystal x-ray data indicate that CeAu4Si2 has CeRe4Si2-type structure and is orthorhombic (Cmmm) and CeAu2Si2 is tetragonal (I4/mmm). Although there is an extra layer of Au atoms in the CeAu4Si2 structure the magnetic ordering temperatures of CeAu2Si2and CeAu4Si2 are remarkably similar. In this work we will examine and discuss the similarities and differences between the thermodynamic, transport and structural properties of these related materials.