Magnetic properties of the HoMn6−xFexSn6 compounds

Intermetallic compounds of HoMn6−xFexSn6 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.2) were studied by means of field-cooled (FC) and zero-field-cooled (ZFC) magnetization measurements in the temperature range 5 K ≤ T ≤ 600 K. The unit cell parameters decrease with the increasing of Fe content. The compounds with x = 0 and 0.3 behave ferrimagnetically in the whole temperature range and spin reorientation transition is observed at 200 and 185 K, respectively. The x = 0.5 and 0.6 compounds show ferrimagnetic–helimagnetic–ferrimagnetic phase transitions with decreasing temperature while the compounds with x = 0.9 and 1.2 only show helimagnetic–ferrimagnetic phase transitions. Additionally, for the x = 0.6 compound the metamagnetic phase transition from helimagnetism to ferrimagnetism is induced by an applied field 20 kOe.