Low-Temperature Phase Transition in PrCl3

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Abstract
Previous measurements of the specific heat, susceptibility, and Cl‐NMR in PrCl3 have assumed that the Pr spins undergo short‐range linear order giving a broad peak in the specific heat centered at 0.85 K. The splitting of the NQR line and the sharp peak in the specific heat at 0.42 K have been interpreted as the onset of long‐range antiferromagnetic order. We have carried out Cl‐NMR studies in the ordered state in applied magnetic fields. Our measurements show that the ordered phase is nonmagnetic. They indicate a crystallographic phase transition in which the chlorines become inequivalent. To a first approximation the space group in the ordered phase is P6̄ or P3. We have also measured the susceptibility in the temperature range 4.2–1.2 K. There is an anomalously large temperature‐independent susceptibility perpendicular to C3. Parallel to C3 the susceptibility does not follow any of the predictions based on the measured g‐values.

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