Martensitic features in Si doped CeFe2 revealed by magnetization and transport study

We report the effect of Si doping on the magnetization and transport behavior in CeFe2. It is found that Si doping is able to stabilize the low temperature antiferromagnetic state in CeFe2, resulting in a first order ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition. The strong magnetostructural coupling in this system is found to give rise to martensitic features, which manifest in the magnetization and transport data. We show clear evidence of this influence through the multi-step magnetization behavior, unusual relaxation effect, thermal and magnetic history dependencies. The non-equilibrium magnetic state at low temperatures is also revealed by the fact that the magnetization steps can be induced with the help of an appropriate measurement protocol. Detailed magnetization relaxation studies have been carried out to understand the dynamics of magnetic phase transition. Martensitic scenario is also found to cause multi-step behavior in the magnetoresistance isotherms. By compiling all the distinct features in this system with those of other related systems, we conclude that this can be a model system that may contribute to understand the rich physics of phase separation and the martensitic scenario, both theoretically and experimentally.