Magnetic properties of U2V3Ge4

We have measured the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the magnetization for the U2V3Ge4 system. A relatively high ferromagnetic TC of 63 K is observed for this system even though the U–U distance is less than the Hill limit of 3.5 Å. The field dependence of the magnetization at low temperatures exhibits hysteresis with a large coercive field indicating a high anisotropy for this compound. Below TC both the zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetization increase as the temperature is decreased, but the ZFC magnetization deviates from the FC data, reaches a broad maximum, and then drops significantly when the temperature is lowered further. This irreversible behavior in the ZFC and FC curves can still be observed in an applied field of H=50 kOe. The anomalous magnetization of this system can be interpreted in terms of intrinsic domain wall pinning which usually occurs in systems with high anisotropy.