Effect of rare-earth doping in RCrSb3 (R = La, Pr, Sm, and Gd)

We report on the electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of La or Gd doped RCrSb{sub 3} (R=La, Pr, Sm, and Gd). Single crystals were grown by increasing the nominal dopant by 25%. In general, two magnetic ordering transitions are found, T{sub C1} is attributed to ferromagnetic ordering of the itinerant Cr sub-lattice, and, at lower temperatures, T{sub C2} is attributed to ordering of the localized rare-earth sub-lattice. Alloying on the rare-earth site varies the de Gennes factor, DG = (g-1){sup 2}J(J+1), and dT{sub C1}/d(DG) = -2K, while dT{sub C2}/d(DG) = 5K. These ordering temperatures are found to converge at GdCrSb{sub 3}, where a single ferrimagnetic transition is found at T{sub C2} = 86 K due to an anti-alignment of the itinerant Cr moments and the localized rare-earth moments. Initially, for DG < 3.5, the rare-earth moments are found to align ferromagnetically, and the paramagnetic Weiss temperature decreases at the same rate as T{sub C1}. But for DG > 4.5, the rare-earth sub-lattice anti-alignes with respect to the Cr sub-lattice, and the Weiss temperature decreases five times as fast. In the region between (3.5 < DG < 4.5), a first order phase transition is found at T{sub C2}