Effect of Y substitution on the structural and magnetic properties of Dy 1−xY xCo 5 compounds

Abstract

Structural and magnetization studies were carried out on Dy 1− x Y x Co 5 [ x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1] compounds which crystallize in the hexagonal CaCu 5-type structure. Lattice parameters and unit-cell volume increase with Y concentration. Large thermomagnetic irreversibility between the field-cooled and the zero-field-cooled magnetization data has been observed in all the compounds, which has been attributed to the domain wall pinning effect. Temperature dependence of dc magnetization and ac magnetic susceptibility show that except DyCo 5 and YCo 5, all the compounds show spin reorientation transitions in the range of 5–300 K. The spin reorientation temperature decreases with increase in Y concentration. Powder X-ray diffractograms of the magnetically aligned samples show that DyCo 5 has planar anisotropy at room temperature whereas all the other compounds possess axial anisotropy. The spin reorientation transition has been attributed to a change in the easy magnetization direction from the ab-plane to the c-axis, as the temperature is increased. The anisotropy field is found to be quite high in all the compounds except DyCo 5. The magnetic properties have been explained by taking into account the variations in contributions arising from the rare earth and transition metal sublattices.