Field-induced anisotropic magnetic phase transitions and tricritical phenomena in GdCr_(6)Ge_(6)

The interaction between complex magnetic structures and non-trivial band structures in ternary rare-earth GdCr_(6)Ge_(6) induces exotic and abundant electro-magnetic phenomena.In this work,we perform a systematical investigation on critical behaviors and magnetic properties of the single-crystal GdCr_(6)Ge_(6).The temperature,field,and angle dependence of magnetization unveils strong magnetic anisotropy along the c-axis and isotropic characteristic in the ab-plane.Critical exponentsβ=0.252(1),γ=0.905(9),δ=4.606(3)for H//ab,andβ=0.281(3),γ=0.991(8),δ=4.541(5)for H//c are obtained by the modified Arrott plot method(MAP)and critical isotherm(CI)analysis.The determined exponents for both directions are consistent with the theoretical prediction of a tricritical mean-field model.Based on detailed magnetization measurements and universality scaling,comprehensive magnetic phase diagrams of GdCr6Ge6for H//ab and H//c are constructed,which reveal that the external field induces a ferromagnetic(FM)transition for H//ab while a ferrimagnetic(FIM)one for H//c.Two tricritical points are determined for H//ab(11.2 K,266.3 Oe)and H//c(11.3 K,3.3 kOe)on the phase diagrams,respectively.The field-induced anisotropic magnetic configurations and multiple phases are clarified,where the moments of Gd and Cr form FM coupling for H//ab while FIM one for H//c via the interaction between Gd and Cr sublattices.