Chemical pressure-induced transition of the magnetic ground state from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic order in CeCuGe and DyCuIn alloys

Abstract

Rare-earth intermetallic compounds continue to attract considerable attention, due to their fundamental importance in understanding physical properties and potential applications based on a variety of phenomena. The ternary intermetallic compounds of the RTX series (R = rare-earth element, T = 3d / 5d transition element, X = p-block element) in particular, were studied extensively for the past two decades. A number of interesting magnetic and electrical properties of practical and fundamental importance, were found in different compounds of the RTX series, including giant and large magnetocaloric effects and magnetoresistivity, antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) order transitions and rich magnetic transition phase diagrams. Most of these properties are related to the interaction between the R-4f (localized) electronic states and other (itinerant) electronic states in the electronic system. Several experiments have provided evidence for magnetic ground state switching between FM and AFM ordering, driven by pressure or chemical substitution in d and f electron compounds. The methods used to investigate the magnetic phase transitions could be divided into macroscopic and microscopic ones. The macroscopic method relied on the temperature dependences of magnetization, magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements while the microscopic method relied on neutron diffraction and Mössbauer effect.