Evidence for magnetic ordering associated with metal-insulator transition in Sm Ru4 P12 studied by muon spin relaxation

Abstract

Muon spin relaxation measurements on the filled skutterudite compound Sm Ru4 P12 have been carried out in zero and longitudinal fields. The temperature dependence of both the initial asymmetry and the muon spin depolarization rate shows the appearance of a magnetically ordered state below the metal-insulator transition temperature TMI. The present study indicates that the ordering below TMI is not a nonmagnetic antiferroquadrupolar ordering but a magnetic one, which supports a scenario that magnetic octupolar ordering occurs below TMI in Sm Ru4 P12. © 2006 The American Physical Society.