Magnetism and Anisotropy in PrCr2Si2C and NdCr2Si2C Single Crystals

We have prepared single crystals of PrCr2Si2C and NdCr2Si2C by Czochralski technique and investigated them by heat capacity and magnetization measurements in the temperature range 2–300 K and magnetic fields up to 6 T applied parallel to the principal crystallographic axes. Both compounds exhibit the strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy with the tetragonal c-axis as the easy direction of magnetization and ferromagnetic ordering below TC = 32 and 24 K for PrCr2Si2C and NdCr2Si2C, respectively. We also studied the electronic structure of the compounds by first-principles DFT calculations, which predict existence of a stable Cr magnetic moment. Results of our present experiments do not allow resolving the question on the existence of the ordered Cr moments unambiguously.