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Abstract:
We report preliminary results of our structural, magnetic and electrical
studies on the new ternary stannides (U, Th)T2Sn2 (T = Co, Ni, Cu). All
the phases crystallize in a tetragonal symmetry with the CaBe2Ge2-type
crystal structure. While UCu2Sn2 and UNi2S2 are antiferromagnets with
T(N) values of 108 K and 35 K respectively, UCo2Sn2 exhibits a more
complex magnetic behaviour with two subsequent maxima in the temperature
variation of the magnetic susceptibility and a strong field dependence
of the magnetization. The thorium intermetallics do not exhibit any
magnetic ordering except for ThCo2Sn2 that orders antiferromagnetically
at 65 K. Both a complex magnetic behaviour of UCo2Sn2 and
antiferromagnetic properties of its thorium counterpart suggest that as
well as uranium the cobalt atoms in this stannide also carry magnetic
moments. For all the uranium compounds the electrical resistivity in the
paramagnetic region rises monotonically with increasing temperature, but
it exhibits a more metallic behaviour for the thorium-based materials.
