Magnetic properties of iron monosilicide FeSi: Pressure effects

For the well-known semiconductor FeSi (B20-type cubic crystal structure), which has a long history of study due to its unique physical properties, including magnetic ones, we present a brief overview of the available experimental data on the hydrostatic pressure effect on magnetic susceptibility, based partly on the works of the authors. The article also provides a short description of the experimental methods used. The presented data on the influence of pressure on susceptibility χ(T) show its significant decrease under pressure in the temperature range 5–300 K. In addition, values of the relative effect, d ln χ(T)/dP, are of order –d ln Eg/dP (Eg is the energy gap). This indicates the dominant role of the behavior of the gap under pressure in forming magnetovolume effects in FeSi and other similar semiconductors.