The CeT X-3 compounds belong to the intensively studied group of materials revealing such properties as valence fluctuations, heavy-fermion behavior, or pressure-induced superconductivity. So far, magnetic structure was investigated in only a few of these.
We performed a series of neutron-diffraction experiments on a structurally well-defined CeCuAl3 single crystal. The ordered non-centro-symmetric tetragonal BaNiSn3-type (I4mm) crystal structure as well as the antiferromagnetic order below T-N approximate to 2.7 K were corroborated by our diffraction experiments.
The amplitude modulated magnetic structure with in-plane magnetic moments described by the propagation vector k = (0.4, 0.6, 0) was revealed. The relation between structural parameters and magnetic structures in the family of isostructural CeT X-3 compounds is discussed.