Magnetic behavior of nanocrystalline LaMn2Ge2

The compound, LaMn₂Ge₂, crystallizing in ThCr₂Si₂-type tetragonal crystal structure, has been known to undergo ferromagnetic order below (T_C=) 326 K. In this article, we report the magnetic behavior of nanocrystalline form of this compound, obtained by high-energy ball milling. T_C of this compound is reduced marginally for the nanoform, whereas there is a significant reduction of the magnitude of the saturation magnetic moment with increasing milling time. The coercive field however increases with decreasing particle size. Thus, this work provides a route to tune these parameters by reducing the particle size in this ternary family.