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When pressurized, the heavy fermion compound CeNiC$_2$ reveals a richelectronic phase diagram and shows unconventional superconductivity with atransition temperature $T_c$ $\sim$ 3.7 K, the highest among Ce-based heavyfermion superconductors [S. Katano et al., Phys. Rev. B. 99, 100501(R) (2019)].Understanding of this appearance of superconductivity in the vicinity ofmagnetic quantum critical point is still lacking. Given that physicalproperties of CeNiC$_2$ are sensitive to subtle changes in the interatomicdistances, information on atomic coordinates may offer essential insights intothe local lattice arrangements, thus the mechanisms behind the exotic phasesand phase transitions. However, extraction of precise information on the atomiccoordinates under pressure remains a challenge. To find a correlation betweenthe local lattice environments and exotic physical properties in CeNiC$_2$, weinvestigate its crystal structure from ambient pressure to 18.6 GPa via singlecrystal X-ray diffraction. The pressure dependence of lattice parametersreveals anisotropic linear compressibility, $|\kappa|$, following therelationship $|\kappa_{a}|$ (3.70$\times$10$^{-3}$ GPa$^{-1}$) $>$$|\kappa_{c}|$ (1.97$\times$10$^{-3}$ GPa$^{-1}$) $>$ $|\kappa_{b}|$(1.39$\times$10$^{-3}$ GPa$^{-1}$), and a large bulk modulus, B$_0$ $\sim$ 134GPa. Although the atomic coordinates between Ce and Ni remain unchanged underapplied pressure, direction of the first nearest and the second nearestneighbors between both the Ce-Ce and Ni-Ni atoms switch $\sim$ 7 GPa. Notably,this is the same pressure that antiferromagnetic ordering temperature reachesmaximum in the pressure temperature phase diagram of CeNiC$_2$. Our resultssuggest that the direction of nearest neighbors interchange might play a keyrole in the suppression of magnetic order and the enhancement of Kondo effect.

Investigation of the atomic coordinates of CeNiC$_2$ under pressure: switching of the Ce-Ce first nearest neighbor direction