The new intermetallic compound Eu 2 Pd 2 Sn has been investigated. A single crystal was selected from the alloy and was analyzed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, revealing that this compound possesses the noncentrosymmetric Ca 2 Pd 2 Ge structure type being, so far, the only rare-earth-based representative. Bonding analysis, performed on the basis of DOS and (I)COHP, reveals the presence of strong covalent Sn–Pd bonds in addition to linear and equidistant Pd–Pd chains. The incomplete ionization of Eu leads to its participation in weaker covalent interactions. The magnetic effective moment, extracted from the magnetic susceptibility χ(T) is μ eff = 7.87 μ B , close to the free ion Eu 2+ value ( μ eff = 7.94 μ B ). The maximum of χ(T) at T N ∼ 13 K indicates an antiferromagnetic behavior below this temperature. A coincident sharp anomaly in the specific heat C P ( T ) emerges from a broad anomaly centered at around 10 K. From the reduced jump in the heat capacity at T N a scenario of a transition to an incommensurate antiferromagnetic phase below T N followed by a commensurate configuration below 10 K is suggested.

We report on synthesis, crystal structure and physical properties of the isotypic compounds YbPdSn 2 and EuPdSn 2 crystallizing in the MgCuAl 2 -type structure. In both stannides a divalent state of respective rare earth element was found from analysis of the magnetic susceptibilities. Whereas in YbPdSn 2 only weak paramagnetic behaviour is observed, in EuPdSn 2 a long-range magnetic phase transition occurs at 12.5 K with complex magnetic behaviour evidenced by magnetic susceptibity and specific heat measurements. Under the influence of magnetic field, the magnetic behaviour was found to evolve from an antiferromagnetic to a ferromagnetic state as a consequence of a re-arrangement of magnetic moments.

The physical properties of the very heavy fermion YbCu4Ni were characterized through structural, magnetic, thermal and transport studies along nearly four decades of temperature ranging between 50 milikelvin and 300 K. At high temperature, the crystal electric field levels splitting was determined with ∆1(Γ6) = 85 K and ∆2(Γ8) ≈ 200 K, the latter being a quartet in this cubic symmetry. An effective magnetic moment µ ef f ≈ 3µB is evaluated for the Γ7 ground state, while at high temperature the value for a Yb 3+ ion is observed. At low temperature this compounds shows the typical behavior of a magnetically frustrated system undergoing a change of regime at a characteristic temperature T * ≈ 200 mK into a sort of Fermi-liquid type 'plateau'of the specific heat: Cm/T |T →0 = const. The change in the temperature dependence of the specific heat coincides with a maximum and a discontinuity in respective inductive and dissipative components of the ac-susceptibility. More details from the nature of this ground state are revealed by the specific heat behavior under applied magnetic field.

We report on the synthesis, crystal structure determination, and magnetic susceptibility measurements of Eu3Pd2Sn2, EuPd2Sn4, and EuPdSn2. For all three compounds a divalent state of Eu ions was obtained from the fitting of the magnetic susceptibilities. At low temperatures Eu3Pd2Sn2, EuPd2Sn4, and EuPdSn2 order magnetically at 23, 12, and 13 K, respectively.

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