Magnetic Properties and Specific Heat of Laves Phase Tb_{1-x}Sc_{x}Ni_2 (x = 0.1, 0.2) Solid Solutions

Magnetic and specific heat measurements have been performed on polycrystalline TbNi2, ScNi2 and their solid solutions Tb1-xScxNi2 (x = 0 1, 0 2) These compounds were synthesized using high-purity rare-earth metals It has been found that the magnetic susceptibility of the nonmagnetic ScNi2 compound exhibits a very weak temperature dependence characteristic of the Pauli paramagnets TbNi2, Tb-0 Sc-9(0) Ni-1(2) and Tb-0 Sc-8(0) Ni-2(2) are typical Curie-Weiss paramagnets and are ferromagnetically ordered below 36 K As revealed by room-temperature X-ray powder diffraction all the Tb1-xScxNi2 solid solutions have the cubic Laves C15-type superstructure The Debye temperature, phonon and conduction electron contributions as well as the magnetic part of heat capacity were determined The magnetocaloric effect has been studied by means of specific heat measurements in magnetic fields of 0 42 and 1 T The effect of rare-earth substitution in ScNi2 on the magnetic and magnetocaloric properties will be discussed