Discovery of Magnetic Phase Transitions in Heavy-Fermion Superconductor <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>CeRh</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>As</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math>

Abstract

We report on the specific heat studies performed on a new generation of CeRh_{2}As_{2} single crystals. Superior quality of the samples and dedicated experimental protocol allowed us to observe an antiferromagneticlike behavior in the normal state and to detect the first-order phase transition of magnetic origin within the superconducting state of the compound. Although in the available literature the physical behavior of CeRh_{2}As_{2} is most often described with the use of quadrupole density wave scenario, we propose an alternative explanation using analogies to antiferromagnetic heavy-fermion superconductors CeRhIn_{5} and Ce_{2}RhIn_{8}.

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