Crystal Growth and Anisotropic Magnetic Properties of RAg$_2$Ge$_2$ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) Single Crystals

Devang A. Joshi; R. Nagalakshmi; R. Kulkarni; S. K. Dhar; A. Thamizhavel

doi:10.1016/j.physb.2009.07.016

paper

Crystal Growth and Anisotropic Magnetic Properties of RAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) Single Crystals

arXiv:0808.2826 · doi:10.1016/j.physb.2009.07.016

Abstract

We report the single crystal growth and anisotropic magnetic properties of the tetragonal RAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) compounds which crystallize in the ThCr $_{2}$ Si $_{2}$ type crystal structure with the space group \textit{I4/mmm}. The single crystals of RAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) were grown by self-flux method using Ag:Ge binary alloy as flux. From the magnetic studies on single crystalline samples we have found that PrAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ and NdAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ order antiferromagnetically at 12 K and 2 K respectively, thus corroborating the earlier polycrystalline results. SmAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ also orders antiferromagnetically at 9.2 K. The magnetic susceptibility and magnetization show a large anisotropy and the easy axis of magnetization for PrAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ and NdAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ is along the [100] direction where as it changes to [001] direction for SmAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ . Two metamagnetic transitions were observed in NdAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ at $H_{m1}$ = 1.25 T and $H_{m2}$ =3.56 T for the field parallel to [100] direction where as the magnetization along [001] direction was linear indicating the hard axis of magnetization.

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to SCES-2008 Proceedings. Submitted to SCES - 2008 Proceedings

Crystal Growth and Anisotropic Magnetic Properties of RAg2​Ge2​ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) Single Crystals

Abstract

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Crystal Growth and Anisotropic Magnetic Properties of RAg $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ (R = Pr, Nd and Sm) Single Crystals