Single crystal growth and characterization of R₂Co₆Al₁₉ (R=Gd-Tm)

R₂Co₆Al₁₉ (R=rare earth) adopts a monoclinic structure (C2/m) featuring quasi-1D chains of the rare earth atoms. Prior work has characterized polycrystalline samples with the light R atoms (R = Ce, Pr) [1,2]; however, no data is reported on single crystals, and analogues with the heavy R’s are yet to be isolated. Here, we report the synthesis and discovery of the heavy R (R = Gd-Tm) members of the R₂Co₆Al₁₉ family, and outline the growth of single crystals from an Al-rich ternary melt. We use x-ray diffraction, temperature and field dependent magnetization, transport, and heat capacity measurements to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the anisotropic physical properties and magnetic phases of this series as function of the rare earth cation.





[1] O. Tougait et al., Journal of Solid-State Chemistry 178, 3639 (2005).

[2] D. Kaczorowski et al., J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 272–276, 239 (2004).