In a previous work Barnes et al. (1) reported the results of EPR studies on the intermetallic compounds TCo having Laves phase structure (where T is a rare-earth element o r Sc, Zr, U, and Y). The determined g-values between 3 . 3 4 and 6 . 7 2 were explained by a resonance of non-S state cobalt ion. Gossard and Wernick (2) extended the measurements to UCo and ZrCo at higher frequencies. They concluded that the 2 2 observed resonance of these compounds is actually ferromagnetic. There are two surprising problems in the above mentioned works:a) It i s somewhat unexpected that the resonance be observed within such a large temperature range, since the ion with such great orbital g-shifts i s expected to relax quite rapidly.b) The studied compounds a r e in a paramagnetic state within the considered temperature range.
2To make clearthese problems we take again the measurements on RCo compounds 2 (R = Gd, Tb, D y , H o , and Er). The samples were prepared by the technique previously described (3). After thermal treatment, crystallographic purity was controlled by X-ray analysis.By paramagnetic measurements we intended to precise the electronic configuration of cobalt atoms in these compounds. A translation balance was used. The measurements were performed in external fields of 4 and 8 kOe respectively, both by heating and cooling the samples. The samples were closed in quartz ampoule5 under vacuum.In all cases the superposition of the results indicates the lack of any ferromagnetic impurities o r oxidation phenomena.7 physica (b)