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Description
Ternary carbides RNiC$_2$ (R = rare earths and Y) crystallize in the non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic CeNiC$_2$-type structure, space group Amm2. This family of compounds attracted attention, because of interesting properties such as superconductivity, magnetism, multiple charge density wave (CDW) transitions related to quasi-one-dimensional electronic features, and finally, a complex interplay of CDW order and rare earth magnetism (see Ref. [1] for a review).
Here, we report on studies of the crystalline electric field effects in RNiC$_2$. Single crystal data of thermodynamic bulk properties such as heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility of heavy rare earth RNiC$_2$ with R = Tb-Tm are complemented with powder inelastic neutron scattering studies of DyNiC$_2$ and TmNiC$_2$ conducted at the MAPS instrument at the ISIS neutron spallation source to analyse the crystalline electric field (CEF) splitting in these compounds in terms of a systematic evolution of corresponding universal CEF parameters. The latter are essential to further explore the formation of magnetic ground states of these compounds.
[1] V. Babizhetskyy, B. Kotur, V. Levytskyy, H. Michor, Chapter 298: Alloy systems and compounds containing rare earth metals and carbon, in: J.-C.G. Bünzli, V.K. Pecharsky (Eds.), Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths, Vol. 52, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 1-263. (2017).