Reentrant spin-glass and transport behavior of Gd4PtAl, a compound with three sites for Gd

We report temperature (T) dependence (2-330 K) of DC and AC magnetization (M), isothermal remnant magnetization (M_IRM), heat capacity (C), electrical resistivity (rho), and magnetoresistance (MR) of a ternary intermetallic compound, Gd4PtAl, crystallizing in a cubic (space group F-43m) structure. In this structure, there are three sites for the rare-earth. The magnetization data reveal that, in addition to a magnetic transition at 64 K, there is another magnetic feature below 20 K. The C(T) data reveal an upturn below 64 K, shifting to a lower temperature with increasing field, which establishes that the onset of magnetic order is of an antiferromagnetic type. However, there is no worthwhile feature near 20 K in the C(T) curve. AC susceptibility peak undergoes an observable change with frequency and, in particular, the peak around 20 K gets suppressed with the application of a dc magnetic field; in addition, M_IRM undergoes a slow decay with time and isothermal M exhibits low-field hysteresis below 20 K only, which is typical of spin-glasses. The results overall suggest that this compound is a reentrant spin-glass in zero-field. There are experimental signatures pointing to the existence of both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic components, competing with the variation of temperature and magnetic field, as a result of which electrical and magnetoresistance behaviors are peculiar. The results overall suggest this compound exhibits interesting magnetic and transport properties.