Magnetic critical-point behaviour of GdNi2

On the magnetic properties of pseudo-Laves phases RE1−yYyNi4−xAlxMg with RE=La, Ce and Gd prepared by both melting and ball milling

“…Both GdNi 2 and GdNi 4 Mg present an increase of the magnetization at low temperature which is due to the ferromagnetic coupling between the Gd moments. GdNi 4 Mg exhibits a Curie temperature T C = 77.6 K which is very close to the one measured for GdNi 2 (T C = 75.0 K; in agreement with previously published data [19][20][21]). The unchanged ordering temperature indicates that the sign of the coupling between Gd atoms through the conduction band remains the same but that its intensity is changed.…”

“…5) is 4.6 B /mol. This is almost half the values reported for GdNi 2 (between 6.9 to 7.2 B from [11,15,[19][20][21]) which is in accordance with the 50% dilution of the magnetic atoms (i.e. Gd 2 Ni 4 → GdNi 4 Mg).…”