Magnetic ordering of R3Cu4Sn4(R = Tb,Dy, Ho and Er)

Abstract

Neutron diffraction studies of polycrystalline R3Cu4Sn4(R = Tb,Dy, Ho, Er) intermetallic compounds with the orthorhombic Gd3Cu4Ge4-typecrystal structure indicate the existence of different magnetic structures.Rare earth atoms occupy two non-equivalent 2d and 4e sublattices. Therare earth magnetic moments order at low temperatures. For R = Tband Dy the magnetic structures below the Néel temperature are describedby the propagation vectors k = (0, 0, 1/2 + δ).In these compounds both rare earth sublattices order. For R = Ho themagnetic structure is more complicated. There are two vectors; one of them is k = (0, 1/2, 0)whereas the second one changes with temperature. For the Ercompound there is the propagation vector k = (1/2, 1/2, 0)which describes the magnetic ordering in the 2d sublattice and at lowtemperatures is accompanied by the propagation vector k = (0, 0,δ)describing the ordering in the 4e sublattice.