Ternary iron arsenide EuFe2As2 with ThCr2Si2-type structure has been studied by magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, thermopower, Hall and specific heat measurements. The compound undergoes two magnetic phase transitions at about 200 K and 20 K, respectively. The former was found to be accompanied with a slight drop in magnetic susceptibility (after subtracting the Curie-Weiss paramagnetic contribution), a rapid decrease in resistivity, a large jump in thermopower and a sharp peak in specific heat with decreasing temperature, all of which point to a spin-density-wave-like antiferromagnetic transition. The latter was proposed to be associated with an A-type antiferromagnetic ordering of Eu2+ moments. Comparing with the physical properties of the iso-structural compounds BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2, we expect that superconductivity could be induced in EuFe2As2 through appropriate doping.
@article{arxiv.0806.2591,
title = {Antiferromagnetic transition in EuFe$_2$As$_2$: A possible parent compound for superconductors},
author = {Zhi Ren and Zengwei Zhu and Shuai Jiang and Xiangfan Xu and Qian Tao and Cao Wang and Chunmu Feng and Guanghan Cao and Zhu'an Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.2591},
year = {2008}
}