Breaking of Cubic Symmetry in Rare-Earth Dodecaborides with Dynamic Charge Stripes

Abstract

The effect of symmetry lowering for the parameters of electron transport in rare-earth dodecaborides RB12 (R = Ho, Er, Tm, Lu) with fcc crystal structure at temperatures T ≤ 150 K has been discovered. It has been shown that the anisotropy of the magnetoresistance increases sharply at the transition to the disordered cage-glass phase below T* ~ 60 K. This effect is observed in magnetic and nonmagnetic rare-earth dodecaborides, including solid solutions RxLu1–xB12 with high substitutional disorder. The role of the electron phase separation (charge stripes along the 〈110〉 direction) in these metals with open trajectories on the Fermi surface is discussed.