Field induced phases in UCr₂Si₂

In the broader family of (Ln-An)Cr₂Si₂ (Ln = lanthanide and An = actinide), UCr₂Si₂ is unique, where the system undergoes a structural (tetragonal to monoclinic) and antiferromagnetic phase transitions at TS = 210 K and TN = 27 K, respectively, and the U ions carry a magnetic moment. Here, we present an extensive study of the behavior in high magnetic fields. We have performed pulsed field torque magnetometry and resistivity measurements on single crystalline samples UCr₂Si₂ grown first time by molten flux method. Along the crystallographic c axis, at low temperatures, we find a metamagnetic-like transition in fields of the order 10 T, possibly indicating a first-order transition, the field induced phase transition moves to higher field and reaches maximum while the field is along the <101> diagonal of the tetragonal lattice. From our analysis of the data we can distinguish new high-field phases above the AFM ground state, which indicate the UCr₂Si₂ is possibly similar to what is seen for URu₂Si₂ and UPt₂Si₂, where the emergence of these new phase is due to the Fermi surface effects.