High-field magnetization study of ErCo₂

Abstract

In this work we present new results on the magnetic properties of the ErCo₂ compound for which three magnetic phases (ferrimagnetic, parimagnetic and paramagnetic) were proposed very recently. This study is based on the investigation of the magnetization under continuous high magnetic fields (up to 330 kOe at 4.2 K and up to 230 kOe in the 4.2–300 K respectively). At low temperatures the stability of the ferrimagnetic structure is shown although the saturation was never found. Special attention is paid to the 35–100 K temperature range where the transitions between the different magnetic phases occur confirming of the paramagnetic orderings. The transition temperature T _c from the ferrimagnetic to the paramagnetic phase increases from ≈ 34 to 62 K with the applied field. For the values of H smaller than 100 kOe. At H values greater than this T _c remains constant at (62 ± 5) K. The atomic magnetic moment of Co is independent of the magnetic structure and in the order of 1µB atom⁻¹.