Anisotropic magnetic and transport properties of UNiGe

Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1994 · IEEE Transactions on Magnetics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/20.312227· OSTI ID:40272

Prokes, K; Nakotte, H; Brueck, E; Boer, F.R. de ^[1]; Havela, L; Sechovsky, V; Svoboda, P ^[2]; Maletta, H ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Amsterdam (Netherlands). Van der Waals-Zeeman Lab.
2. Charles Univ., Prague (Czech Republic). Dept. of Metal Physics
3. Hahn-Meitner-Inst., Berlin (Germany)

Magnetism in UNiGe which adopts the orthorhombic TiNiSi type of structure with lattice constants a = 700.7 pm, b = 423.7 pm, c = 720.7 pm is strongly anisotropy. The Curie-Weiss behavior of the susceptibility above 90 K yields values of {Theta}{sub p} equal to {minus}98, 3 and 41 K for the a, b and c axis, respectively. Also the electrical resistivity is anisotropic and reflects magnetic phase transitions at 41.5 and 50 K, in very good agreement with specific-beat data. An antiferromagnetic structure of U moments of about 1.4 {mu}B with a propagation vector q = (0, 0.5, 0.5) can be concluded from neutron-diffraction studies at low temperatures. Two metamagnetic transitions are observed in high-field magnetization data at 4.2 K in fields applied along the b (at 17 and 25 T) and c (at 3 and 10 T) axes yielding parallel alignment of the magnetic moments in fields above the second transition. The magnetization measured at 35 T amounts to 1.45 {mu}{sub B}/fu. The huge magnetic anisotropy is reflected in the weak linear magnetic response to fields along the a axis yielding only 0.23 {mu}{sub B}/f.u. at 35 T. The destruction of antiferromagnetic ordering in high fields is accompanied by a reduction of about 80% of the electrical resistivity. The huge magnetic anisotropy and giant magnetoresistance which is also observed in other UTX compounds (T = transition metal, X = P-metal) can be understood in terms of anisotropic 5f-ligand hybridization.

• OSTI ID: 40272
• Report Number(s): CONF-930860--
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Magnetics Journal Issue: 2Pt2 Vol. 30; ISSN IEMGAQ; ISSN 0018-9464
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
GERMANIUM ALLOYS
INTERMETALLIC COMPOUNDS
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
NICKEL ALLOYS
URANIUM ALLOYS