Magnetic ordering and low-temperature thermodynamic properties of ErFe2Ge2

Polycrystalline sample of ErFe2Ge2 was investigated by means of magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and electrical resistivity measurements, as well as by powder neutron diffraction. All these experiments yielded an evidence of magnetic ordering setting at about 3 K. The low-temperature neutron data revealed the formation of a sine-modulated commensurate antiferromagnetic structure characterized by the propagation vector k=(0, 0, 14). The erbium magnetic moment is aligned parallel to the crystallographic a-axis. At T=1.55 K it is equal to 7.06(5) μB.