Anisotropic giant magnetoresistance, magnetocaloric effect, and magnetic anomalies in single crystalline Tb(2)BdSi(3)

The results of magnetization, electrical resistivity, and magnetoresistance measurements for two different directions on single crystalline Tb2PdSi3 a re presented. The magnetic properties including magnetoresistance and the m agnetic coupling are found to be strongly anisotropic with features attribu table to more than one magnetic transition and the results reveal that this compound is presumably characterized by an interesting magnetic-field/temp erature phase diagram. An unusual finding is that there is a broad peak aro und 50 K in the plot of magnetic susceptibility versus temperature, which a ppears to be magnetic in origin, for the data measured along the c directio n, whereas Curie-Weiss behavior is observed down to (T-N=) 23 K for [10 (1) over bar0] direction. We also emphasize on the anisotropy in observing mag netocaloric effect in the sense that this effect is rather large over a wid e low temperature range for [10 (1) over bar0] direction, in sharp contrast to relatively smaller values for [0001] direction.