Magnetic structure of NdPt2B using single crystal neutron diffraction

NdPt2B crystallizes in the non-centrosymmetric hexagonal structure. Resistivity, specific heat and susceptibility reveal three antiferromagnetic transitions at TN1 = 19.5K, TN2 = 11K, and a first-order transition at Tm = 9.5K. Our neutron powder diffraction study on NdPt2B (with B-11) using D20 at ILL shows three AFM transitions through the change in the magnetic Bragg peaks’ positions with T. Our preliminary analysis shows majority of magnetic Bragg peaks above 2theta>=7 deg can be indexed with a propagation vector k = [0 0 l] with l=0.25 at 13K, l=0.295 at 10K and l= 0.4 at 3K. However, two strong magnetic peaks below 7 deg and other weak peaks at high angle cannot be indexed, indicating the presence of a second propagation vector. We, therefore, proposed to carry out a single crystal neutron diffraction study on NdPt2B to investigate its magnetic structure across three transitions.