Single crystals of EuNiGe3 crystallizing in the non-centrosymmetric BaNiSn3-type structure have been grown using In flux, enabling us to explore the anisotropic magnetic properties which was not possible with previously reported polycrystalline samples. The EuNiGe3 single crystalline sample is found to order antiferromagnetically at 13.2 K as revealed from the magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and electrical resistivity data. The low temperature magnetization M(H) is distinctly different for field parallel to ab-plane and c-axis; the ab-plane magnetization varies nearly linearly with field before the occurrence of an induced ferromagnetic phase (spin-flip) at 6.2 Tesla; on the other hand M(H) along the c-axis is accompanied by two metamagnetic transitions followed by a spin-flip at 4.1 T. A model including anisotropic exchange and dipole-dipole interactions reproduces the main features of magnetization plots but falls short of full representation. (H,T) phase diagrams have been constructed for the field applied along the principal directions. From the 151Eu M\"{o}ssbauer spectra, we determine that the 13.2 K transition leads to an incommensurate antiferromagnetic intermediate phase followed by a transition near 10.5 K to a commensurate antiferromagnetic configuration.
@article{arxiv.1402.0094,
title = {EuNiGe3, an equal moment anisotropic antiferromagnet},
author = {Arvind Maurya and P. Bonville and A. Thamizhavel and S. K. Dhar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.0094},
year = {2014}
}