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Abstract

We studied the magnetic, transport, and thermodynamic properties of the alloy CeTi1-xScxGe in order to shed some light into the origin of the exceptionally large antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering temperature T-N = 47K in pure CeScGe. We observed a complex magnetic phase diagram, which present an interesting dichotomy: Despite strong changes in the nature of the ordered state, from ferromagnetic (FM) for x < 0.55 to AFM for x > 0.55, the ordering temperature increases smoothly and continuously from T-C = 7K at x = 0.25 to T-N = 47K at x = 1. Within the AFM regime we observe a metamagnetic transition at a critical field increasing from H = 0 at x approximate to 0.55 to mu(0) (*) H approximate to 6 Tesla at x = 1. Furthermore a second transition appears at T-L <= T-N for x >= 0.65. In contrast to observations in CeRh2Si2 or CeRh3B2, we found no evidence for a strong hybridization of the 4f electrons at large Sc contents. Therefore the exceptionally large T-N of CeScGe could be attributed to the unusually strong RKKY interaction in this type of compounds.