A comparative study of the magnetic and transport properties of Dy-In based intermetallic compounds

A comparative study of the magnetic and transport properties of three Dy-In intermetallic compounds, namely DyIn3, Dy5In3 and Dy3In, is reported. DyIn3 has cubic crystal structure; on the other hand, Dy5In3 and Dy3In crystallize in tetragonal structure, albeit with different space groups. DyIn3 orders antiferromagnetically below T-N = 23 K, while Dy5In3 and Dy3In show ferromagnetic-like ground state with much higher ordering temperatures (119 and 125 K respectively). The ferromagnetic compounds show significant magneto-caloric effect around their respective Curie temperatures. On the other hand, the magneto-caloric effect in DyIn3 is low but associated with the change in sign around T-N. All the samples show small magneto-resistance, and it is found to be positive in case of DyIn3 at 5 K. The signature of metamagnetic transition in DyIn3 is visible in the magneto-caloric and magneto-resistance data. Efforts have been made to account the observed magnetic phenomena based on Dy concentration and Dy-Dy bond distance in these three compositions.