We present a study of the main bulk properties (susceptibility, magnetization, resistivity, and specific heat) of CePt${}_3$B${}_{1-x}$Si${}_x$, an alloying system that crystallizes in a noncentrosymmetric lattice, and derive the magnetic phase diagram. The materials at the end point of the alloying series have previously been studied, with CePt${}_3$B established as a material with two different magnetic phases at low temperatures (antiferromagnetic below $T_N=7.8$ K, weakly ferromagnetic below $T_C\approx 5$ K), while CePt${}_3$Si is a heavy fermion superconductor ($T_c=0.75$ K) coexisting with antiferromagnetism ($T_N=2.2$ K). From our experiments we conclude that the magnetic phase diagram is divided into two regions. In the region of low Si content (up to $x\sim 0.7$) the material properties resemble those of CePt${}_3$B. Upon increasing the Si concentration further the magnetic ground state continuously transforms into that of CePt${}_3$Si. In essence, we argue that CePt${}_3$B can be understood as a low pressure variant of CePt${}_3$Si.

• Received 25 September 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.245104