Field-induced magnetic phase transitions and metastable states in Tb3Ni

In this paper we report the detailed study of magnetic phase diagrams, low-temperature magnetic structures, and the magnetic field effect on the electrical resistivity of the binary intermetallic compound Tb3Ni. The incommensurate magnetic structure of the spin-density-wave type described with magnetic superspace group P112(1)/a1'(ab0)0ss and propagation vector k(IC) = [0.506, 0.299,0] was found to emerge just below Neel temperature T-N = 61 K. Further cooling below 58 K results in the appearance of multicomponent magnetic states: (i) a combination of k(1) = [1/2, 1/2, 0] and k(IC) in the temperature range 51 < T < 58 K; (ii) a mixed magnetic state of k(IC), k(1), and k(2) = [1/2, 1/4, 0] with the partially locked-in incommensurate component in the temperature range 48 < T < 51 K; and (iii) a low-temperature magnetic structure that is described by the intersection of two isotropy subgroups associated with the irreducible representations of two coupled primary order parameters (OPs) k(2) = [1/2, 1/4, 0] and k(3) = [1/2, 1/3, 0] and involves irreducible representations of the secondary OPs k(1) = [1/2, 1/2, 0] and k(4) = [1/2, 0, 0] below 48 K. An external magnetic field suppresses the complex low-temperature antiferromagnetic states and induces metamagnetic transitions towards a forced ferromagnetic state that are accompanied by a substantial magnetoresistance effect due to the magnetic superzone effect. The forced ferromagnetic state induced after application of an external magnetic field along the b and c crystallographic axes was found to be irreversible below 3 and 8 K, respectively.