Magnetic properties of CeM{sub 1.5}M’{sub 0.5}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12} (M = Mn, Co; M’ = Ni, Cu)
Highlights: • marked composition dependence of magnetic structure. • metamagnetic transition in CeCo{sub 1.5}Cu{sub 0.5}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12}. • neutron diffraction in an applied field. - Abstract: A study of the solid solutions CeM{sub 2-x}M’{sub x}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12} (M = Mn, Co; M’ = Ni, Cu) by X-ray diffraction and magnetometry is described. For M = Co the introduction of Ni and Cu was possible for x ≤ 0.5; for M = Mn attempts to introduce Cu were unsuccessful but CeMn{sub 1.5}Ni{sub 0.5}GeO{sub 4} was obtained as a single phase. These compositions crystallise in the space group P4/nbm with a ~9.76, c ~4.85 Å. They all order antiferromagnetically with T{sub N}1.5 Ni{sub 1.5}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12} and CeCo{sub 1.5}Cu{sub 0.5}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12} were shown by neutron diffraction to be the same as those adopted by CeMn{sub 2}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12} and CeCo{sub 2}Ge{sub 4}O{sub 12}, respectively. The in-field metamagnetic transition of the latter to a weakly ferromagnetic phase was shown to persist in the Cu-doped composition. The available data suggest that the anisotropy associated with the Co{sup 2+} cation plays a dominant role in determining the magnetic behaviour of these compounds.