Crystal structure, thermal expansion and magnetic properties of Nd2Cu0.8Ge3 compound Original Research Article

A new ternary intermetallic compound, Nd2Cu0.8Ge3, was synthesized and its crystal structure was determined by Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction data. The Nd2Cu0.8Ge3 compound crystallizes in space group I41/amd (No. 141), with a tetragonal a-ThSi2 structure type, and a=0.41783(2) nm, c=1.43689(9) nm, Z=2 and Dcalc=7.466 g/cm3. Using the high temperature powder X-ray diffraction (HTXRD) technique, the lattice thermal expansion behavior of the compound was investigated in the temperature range of 298–648 K, and the result shows that its unit-cell parameters increased anisotropically when temperature increased. The magnetic susceptibility measured in the temperature range of 5–300 K indicated antiferromagnetic order of Nd2Cu0.8Ge3 at low temperatures, and the magnetic susceptibility can be well described over the range of 50–300 K using Curie–Weiss law. The calculated effective magnetic moment (μeff) is 3.53 μB and dominated by the contribution of the Nd3+ ions.