Fermi Surface Properties and Metamagnetism in the Antiferroquadrupolar Compound PrPb_3

Abstract

We have measured the de Haas-van Alphen effect of PrPb_3 whose antiferroquadrupolar ordering occurs at 0.4, K.Main Fermi surfaces consist of four closed ones, which are almost spherical. These Fermi surfaces are the same as those of a non-f / reference compound LaPb_3 in topology, although the cyclotron effective masses are 2 to 6 times larger than those of LaPb_3. The cyclotron effective masses are temperature-dependent, which starts gradually with decreasing the temperature below 1, K. A metamagnetic transition is also found to occur at about 70, kOe below 0.6, K through the magnetization, magnetostriction and AC susceptibility measurements. These phenomena are closely related to the antiferroquadrupolar ordering at 0.4, K.