Electronic and magnetic properties of stoichiometric CeAuBi₂

We report the electronic and magnetic properties of stoichiometric CeAuBi₂ single crystals. At ambient pressure, CeAuBi₂ orders antiferromagnetically below a Néel temperature (T_N ) of 19 K. Neutron diffraction experiments revealed an antiferromagnetic propagation vector $\hat{\tau }=[0,0,1∕2]$ , which doubles the paramagnetic unit cell along the c axis. At low temperatures several metamagnetic transitions are induced by the application of fields parallel to the c axis, suggesting that the magnetic structure of CeAuBi₂ changes as a function of field. At low temperatures, a linear positive magnetoresistance may indicate the presence of band crossings near the Fermi level. Finally, the application of external pressure favors the antiferromagnetic state, indicating that the 4f electrons become more localized.