Critical behavior of the cubic ErNi2 Laves compound nearby the Ferro-paramagnetic phase transition

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the critical behavior of the cubic Laves crystalline binary intermetallic compound ErNi2 near its second-order ferromagnetic (FM) to paramagnetic (PM) transition (6.9 K). Both the normalized thermal dependencies of the magnetic entropy change curves and the Banerjee criterion confirm the second order nature of the transition. By comparing the normalized slopes, we found that the Tricritical mean-field model is the best model to calculate the critical exponent value of ErNi2. Based on the modified Arrott plots, the final critical exponents are determined to be β = 0.164(2) and γ = 0.821(9), which are the closest to the Tricritical mean-field model, except for a litter differences. Moreover, the accuracy and reliability of these exponents were confirmed by both the Widom scaling relation and the scaling hypothesis. Our results provide new insight into understanding this compound's magnetic interactions.