Irreversible magnetic-field-induced antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic transition in Nd5Ge3

✍ Scribed by Takanori Tsutaoka; Akira Tanaka; Yasuo Narumi; Masahiro Iwaki; Koichi Kindo

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 910 KB
• Volume: 405
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0921-4526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2009.08.052

✦ Synopsis

Magnetic phase transitions in the rare-earth intermetallic compound Nd 5 Ge 3 have been investigated using a single crystal. Magnetic measurements confirm that Nd 5 Ge 3 is in the antiferromagentic state below T N ¼ 51 K, in literature. An irreversible magnetic-field-induced antiferromagentic to ferromagnetic transition has been found below T t ¼ 26 K. In this state, a metamagnetic transition takes place in the first magnetizing process; a ferromagnetic state having a remanent magnetization M R is stabilized after removing the external magnetic field. M R does not show noticeable relaxation behavior and a rectangular-type hysteresis loop is maintained in the following magnetization process. As origin of the irreversibility, a martensitic structural phase transition under the external field can be considered. The magnetic-field cooling effect on the magnetic susceptibility indicates the coexistence of a kind of spinglass state with long-range antiferromagnetic ordering.