High Field and Low Temperature Magnetization of ErCu2Si2 Single Crystal

The magnetic measurements have been performed for high fields up to 18 T and low temperatures down to 0.5 K on the single crystal compound ErCu2Si2. In the temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility, two anomalies are seen at TN=1.51 K and Tt=0.97 K which is corresponding to an antiferromagnetic ordering temperature and may come from a change of magnetic structure. Low temperature magnetization shows a metamagnetic transition around 0.4 T along the easy magnetization direction of [001]. The magnetization is almost saturated above 3 T and reaches 8.8μB/f.u. at 18 T. A metamagnetic transition appears around 0.5 T in the basal plane magnetization processes as well. The anisotropy within the basal plane is fairly large for high fields. These behaviors have been explained from crystalline electric field effects and magnetic interaction in terms of molecular field.