Crossover from antiferro-to-ferromagnetism on substitution of Co by V in RE(Co1-xVx)2Si2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.35)

In PrCo2Si2 and NdCo2Si2, Co has been partially substituted by V. Vanadium having a larger atomic radius than cobalt, the substitution results in a negative pressure affecting the magnetic properties of the compound. The samples RE(Co1-xVx)2Si2 (RE = Pr, Nd; x = 0, 0.20, 0.35) were prepared by melting the corresponding elements in arc furnace and characterized using x-ray diffraction. Magnetometric measurements show that the parent compounds PrCo2Si2 and NdCo2Si2 are antiferromagnetic, as reported. With doping, ferrimagnetic behaviour is observed from temperature dependence of inverse susceptibility at about 50 K. At lower than 30 K, the magnetizations tend to saturate at high fields. From the field dependence of magnetization, the hysteresis loops and also coercive fields as observed, the samples exhibit ferromagnetism below ∼ 30 K. Exchange bias effect is also observed in the high V containing sample. The specific heat studies of the samples show transitions consistent with the magnetization data. Pr(Co...