Unusual hysteresis in the magnetic susceptibility of cubic hexaboride KB6

Jean Etourneau (1) , Abdelaziz Ammar (2) , Antoine Villesuzanne (1) , Gérard Villeneuve (3) , Bernard Chevalier (1) , Myung-Hwan Whangbo (4)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 Laboratoire de Chimie des Matériaux Solides
3 IRAMAT - Institut de Recherches sur les Archéomatériaux
4 Department of Chemistry, North Carolina Raleigh

Electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and electron paramagnetic resonance measurements were carried out for cubic hexaboride KB6, which is one electron short of completely filling its conduction band. It is found that KB6 is not metallic and has localized spins. KB6 exhibits a highly unusual hysteresis in the magnetic susceptibility below 100 K, which suggests that it undergoes a slow relaxation process.

Mots clés: Potassium boride; Electron spin resonance; Electric resistance; Magnetic hysteresis; Magnetic susceptibility

Domaines: Matériaux

Jean Etourneau, Abdelaziz Ammar, Antoine Villesuzanne, Gérard Villeneuve, Bernard Chevalier, et al.. Unusual hysteresis in the magnetic susceptibility of cubic hexaboride KB6. Inorganic Chemistry, 2003, 42 (14), pp.4242-4244. ⟨10.1021/ic034018x⟩. ⟨hal-00194557⟩