Magnetic properties of U2V3Ge4

We have measured the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the magne tization for the U2V3Ge4 system. A relatively high ferromagnetic T-C of 63 K is observed for this system even though the U-U distance is less than the Hill limit of 3.5 Angstrom. The field dependence of the magnetization at l ow temperatures exhibits hysteresis with a large coercive field indicating a high anisotropy for this compound. Below T-C both the zero field cooled ( ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetization increase as the temperature is dec reased, but the ZFC magnetization deviates from the FC data, reaches a broa d maximum, and then drops significantly when the temperature is lowered fur ther. This irreversible behavior in the ZFC and FC curves can still be obse rved in an applied field of H=50 kOe. The anomalous magnetization of this s ystem can be interpreted in terms of intrinsic domain wall pinning which us ually occurs in systems with high anisotropy. (C) 2000 American Institute o f Physics. [S0021-8979(00)30908-2].