Student: Brant Abeln (Drake University) Mentor: Andrew Cornelius 

Heat Capacity and High Pressure Exploration of YbB₂

The compound YbB₂ has been reported to order anti-ferromagnetically at temperatures around 5.6K. This transition was verified from heat capacity data taken in different magnetic fields by our Quantum Design Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS), which can measure the heat capacity of the sample and other properties (resistivity, AC transport, AC susceptibility, ³He)  X-ray diffraction measurements have been performed using this sample under different pressures at the Advanced Photon Source facility at Argonne National Laboratory.  A sudden change in resistivity measurements of the sample indicated a possible structural phase transition at a pressure around 3 GPa. The data indicates that the YbB₂ compound is not responsible for the anomaly.