Investigation of the magnetic and lattice properties of REPtIn and RE2AgIn

The three terminal capacitance dilatometer is the most sensitive means for measuring the thermal expansion of solid samples at low temperatures. A measuring system based around capacitance dilatometry has been automated to provide a means of routine data collection of length changes in samples in the temperature range 1.5 K to 300 K. The dilatometer has been used in conjunction with magnetisation and neutron scattering measurements to investigate members from rare earth alloys as part of a wider study of the magnetic and lattice properties of isostructural rare earth alloy series, in particular the rare earth alloy series RE2AgIn (RE = Tb, Ho and Er) and REPtIn (RE = Nd, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Er). Two samples have been investigated using thermal expansion, Tb2AgIn and TbPtIn. Both order magnetically at temperatures around 50 K and phase transitions corresponding to the ordering were observed using the capacitance dilatometer for the samples. The data for the alloy series is presented and discussed with a view to describing the complex nature of these alloy systems.