Rare earth-aluminum intermetallic compounds RAl₂ (R ; Lu, Ce, Gd) are prepared by the arc-melt method and the magnetic properties and electronic structures are investigated by magnetic susceptibility measurements using SQUID magnetometer. The magnet...
Rare earth-aluminum intermetallic compounds RAl₂ (R ; Lu, Ce, Gd) are prepared by the arc-melt method and the magnetic properties and electronic structures are investigated by magnetic susceptibility measurements using SQUID magnetometer. The magnetic susceptibility of LuAl₂ is weakly temperature dependent and shows a Pauli susceptibility of 10.1×10^(-5) emu/㏖, which means 3.2 states/ eV / formula unit. On the other hand, the susceptibility data of CeAl₂ and GdAl₂ show a Curie-Weiss behavior for paramagnets. The magnetization data at low temperatures confirm that CeAl₂ undergoes an antiferromagnetic phase transition near 4 K whereas GdAl₂ a ferromagnetic transition at 170 K. The distinctive magnetic behaviors of RAl₂ originate from the different 4f band filling.