Anisotropic giant magnetoresistance, magnetocaloric effect, and magnetic anomalies in single crystalline Tb₂PdSi₃

Abstract

The results of magnetization, electrical resistivity, and magnetoresistance measurements for two different directions on single crystalline Tb₂PdSi₃ are presented. The magnetic properties including magnetoresistance and the magnetic coupling are found to be strongly anisotropic with features attributable to more than one magnetic transition and the results reveal that this compound is presumably characterized by an interesting magnetic-field/temperature phase diagram. An unusual finding is that there is a broad peak around 50 K in the plot of magnetic susceptibility versus temperature, which appears to be magnetic in origin, for the data measured along the c direction, whereas Curie-Weiss behavior is observed down to (T_N=) 23 K for [101⁻0] direction. We also emphasize on the anisotropy in observing magnetocaloric effect in the sense that this effect is rather large over a wide low temperature range for [101⁻0] direction, in sharp contrast to relatively smaller values for [0001] direction.