Neutron diffraction study of the magnetic structures of PrMn2-xCoxGe2 (x = 0.4, 0.5 and 0.8) with a new refinement procedure

The magnetic structures of PrMn2-xCoxGe2 (x = 0.4, 0.5 and 0.8) with ThCr2Si2-type structure have been investigated by means of neutron diffraction measurements between 2 and 312 K. We introduced a new refinement procedure to determine the magnetic moments of Pr and Mn sublattices below the rare-earth ordering temperature TCPr because of the overlapping of the magnetic reflections of the Pr and Mn sublattices. Rietveld refinements demonstrated that above the Curie temperature an intralayer antiferromagnetic ordering within (001) Mn layers is observed in PrMn1.6Co0.4Ge2 and PrMn1.5Co0.5Ge2, while the intralayer antiferromagnetic ordering within (001) Mn layers is found over the whole temperature range for PrMn1.2Co0.8Ge2. Below the Curie temperature the PrMn1.6Co0.4Ge2 and PrMn1.5Co0.5Ge2 compounds have a canted ferromagnetic structure with the canting angles 620 and 650 at 2 K, respectively. Below 75 and 70 K, a ferromagnetic ordering of the Pr sublattice is observed along the c-axis for these compounds. Below 70 K, a ferromagnetic ordering of Pr sublattices is found (not detected by magnetic measurements) along the c-axis in PrMn1.2Co0.8Ge2