Structural and magnetic properties of Nd2NiGe3

Abstract

Structural analysis of the room temperature diffraction data of Nd2NiGe3 shows that it exhibits AlB2 type structure with space group P6/mmm. The crystal structure of Nd2NiGe3 consists of two dimensional Ni/Ge hexagonal units sandwiching the neodymium atoms between them. Temperature dependent magnetic susceptibility data follows Curie-Weiss law in the temperature range 20-300 K yielding an effective magnetic moment of 3.83 mu(B)/Nd and paramagnetic Curie temperature -2.1 K indicating trivalent Nd and weak antiferromagnetic interactions, respectively. Low field magnetic susceptibility measurement show a weak antiferromagnetic like ordering around 3 K. Temperature dependent neutron diffraction measurements rules out long range antiferromagnetic ordering in this compound. The electrical resistivity measurement shows metallic nature of Nd2NiGe3, which exhibits sudden drop in resistivity below 3 K. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.