The development of one of the branches of modern electronics i.e. the spintronics is based on the spin polarization effects. It has been recently found that CeNi₄Mn exhibits exceptional and promising properties [1-3]. It is a soft ferromagnet with the coercive field below 5 Oe at 5 K. The saturation field is about 1.5 kOe. Simultaneously, the Andreev reflection measurements have shown that this compound can reach a spin polarization of the order of 66% [3]. The Curie temperature of CeNi₄Mn is equal to 140 K and, as was recently observed, by neutron diffraction - the magnetic ordering is of the ferromagnetic type with the magnetic moment of 4.6m_B at 17 K [1, 2]. The saturation magnetic moment at 2 K is 4.6m_B/f.u, which is nearly equal to 5m_B for the spin moment of the Mn²⁺ ion. This implies that both Ce and Ni do not carry any significant magnetic moment [1, 2].

CeNi₄Mn belongs to a widely studied series of compounds of the composition RNi₄X, where X = B, Al, Cu, Ga, Si and Mn. It appeared that the substitution by various X leads to modification of the crystallographic structure. The parent compound CeNi₅ crystallizes in the hexagonal CaCu₅-type of structure, space group P6/mmm with Ce occupying the 1a site (0,0,0), Ni(1) in the 2c site (1/3,2/3,0) and Ni(2) in the 3g sites (1/2,0,1/2). This same structure is realized for X = Al, Cu, Ga and Si with X and Ni(2) atoms statistically distributed over the 3g site [4]. For X = Mn the hexagonal structure observed for all the previous substitutions switches to a cubic MgCu₄Sn-type of structure, which is a variant of the cubic AuBe₅ structure [1, 5].

The aim of this work was obtaining of the CeNi₄Mn single crystal and examination of its structural, magnetic, transport and electronic structure properties. The single crystal was obtained by the Czochralski method. CeNi₄Mn has grown in the hexagonal CaCu₅-type of crystal structure. From the ac magnetic susceptibility a transition to the ferromagnetic state has been found at about 140 K.

[1] Indu Dhiman, A. Das, S.K. Dhar, P. Raychaudhuri, Surjeet Singh, P. Manfrinetti, Solid State Comm. 141 (2007) 160–163

[2] E.N. Voloshina, Y.S. Dedkov, M. Richter, P. Zahn, Phys. Rev. B 73 (2006) 144412.

[3] S. Singh, G. Sheet, P. Raychaudhuri, S.K. Dhar, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88 (2006) 022506.

[4] Y.B. Kuz'ma and N.S. Bilonizhenko, Kristallografiya 18 (1973) 710.

[5] Ya.M. Kalychak, O.I. Bodak, and E.I. Gladyshevskii, Izv. Akad. Nauk, SSSR, Neorg. Mater. 12 (1976) 961.

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