Abstract
We report on the structural and magnetic properties of the YCo 4Al and PrCo 4Al intermetallic compounds. Both phases crystallize in the hexagonal CaCu 5-type structure with P6/mmm space group. Neutron powder diffraction experiments demonstrate that the Al atoms preferentially occupy the 3 g crystallographic site of the CaCu 5 structure. Al substitution in RCo 5 induces remarkable changes of the magnetic properties: a drastic decrease of the mean Co magnetic moment, the saturation magnetization, and the Curie temperature. The magnetic anisotropy field at room temperature has been measured on field-oriented powder using magnetization measurements. A spin reorientation transition was observed in PrCo 4Al at low temperature by susceptibility measurements on a field-oriented sample. A detailed analysis of this phenomenon is completed by polar magnetic measurements and neutron thermodiffraction experiment. First-order magnetization process occurs in PrCo 4Al up to 60 K at a critical field of about 6 T.
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