Systematically study on the magnetism and critical behaviour of layered NdMn1.4Cu0.6Si2

Abstract

The strong dependence of the field-induced on the body-centered tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type and the critical behaviour of magnetic phase transition in NdMn2-xCuxSi2 based compounds guide us to study the substitution Mn (atomic radius = 1.35 Å) by Cu (atomic radius = 1.28 Å) in layered NdMn1.4Cu0.6Si2 compound. Room temperature x-ray diffraction study indicates clearly that most of the reflections can be identified with ThCr2Si2-type structure with space group I4/mmm. It found lattice parameters a slightly increases and lattice parameter c decrease compare to NdMn2Si2 as indicated the decreasing of volume structure. The Neel temperature TN is found at 340 K while Curie temperature TC found at 75 K respectively. The increasing concentration of Cu in replacement of Mn changes the magnetic phase transition from first order type for NdMn2Si2 to second order type for layered NdMn1.4Cu0.6Si2 compound as been determined by particular the S-shaped nature of the Arrott plot near TC. Our results indicate that the magnetic-field-induced magnetic phase transition plays a critical role on producing large magnetocaloric effect in these systems especially on second order type as the key for further investigation. The critical behaviour analysis in the vicinity of TC demonstrates that the magnetism of the layered NdMn1.4Cu0.6Si2 compound is governed by long range interactions.