Antiferromagnetic Cuprates Research Articles

Identification of Several New Ferromagnetic and Antiferromagnetic Rare Earth Cuprates

Several new rare earth cuprates having the chemical form RxCuyOz (where R represents the rare earths La, Nd, Sm, Eu, and Gd) have recently been synthesized using a NaOH flux at 400°C. The materials are polycrystalline, and contain varying amounts of R2CuO4 and CuO. During subsequent susceptibility measurements using a SQUID magnetometer, it was found that the Gd material orders antiferromagnetically at approximately 14K, while the other compounds become ferromagnetic between 18K and 28K. Treatment of the powders with 12M HC1 for several minutes dissolves the impurity R2CuO4 and CuO phases, thus facilitating efforts to determine the composition and crystal structure of the new ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic cuprates. Details of synthesis and magnetic behavior of these materials are to be published elsewhere. In this study, a first attempt is made to characterize the Eu and Gd materials.Energy dispersive x-ray analysis carried out during scanning electron microscopy work indicates that the R:Cu ratio in the Gd material is 1:1.70 (close to 3:5) and that in the Eu material is 1:1.96 (close to 1:2).