Itinerant electron metamagnetic transition in exchange enhanced paramagnetic compounds Lu(Co1-xSnx)2

Abstract

Magnetization measurements of C-15 type Laves phase compounds Lu(Co_1-xSn_x)₂ have been carried out up to 100 T in order to investigate the itinerant electron metamagnetic transition. By partial replacement of Co by Sn, the lattice constant increases and the critical magnetic field decreases linearly with increasing x. The susceptibility increases until x=0.04 and then decreases above x=0.06. A clear itinerant electron metamagnetic transition has been observed in the whole concentration range. It has been demonstrated that this transition occurs even in a pure compound LuCo₂ and its critical magnetic-transition field is determined to be 74 T, not so different from the value predicted by the band calculation. On the other hand, the observed magnetization jump of LuCo₂ is about 0.5 mu _B/Co, which is much larger than the theoretical value.