Investigation of magnetic and electrical transport properties of Dy2Ni2Sn

The magnetic and transport properties of the ternary rare-earth compound Dy2Ni2Sn are reported. The compound undergoes a long range antiferromagnetic ordering below TN=43 K with a collinear structure. A second transition is observed below about Tt=28 K, where spin canting takes place. We find clear thermal hysteresis in our magnetization data between 20 and 45 K, indicating the first order nature of the magnetic transitions occurring at TN and Tt. Clear signature of metamagnetism is observed in the canted antiferromagnetic phase. The change in entropy on the application of magnetic field (magnetocaloric effect) was calculated from the isothermal magnetization data and it shows negative and positive peaks at TN and Tt respectively. The thermal variation of resistivity shows clear peak like signature near TN, which gets suppressed under applied magnetic field resulting negative magnetoresistance. The low temperature resistivity (below Tt) can be well fitted with the model available for spin dependent s-f scattering in antiferromagnetic system having well localized moments. The data also indicate short range correlations well above the antiferromagnetic transition point, which might be related to the two dimensional spin-spin correlations in this layered compound.