Structural and magnetic properties of some rare-earth zirconate

The polycrystalline rare earth zirconate R₂ Zr₂ O₇, (where R = Gd, Tb and Dy) was synthesized by solid state reaction technique at 1300K. The synthesized compounds have been characterized by XRD, differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG). The XRD characterization suggests the formation of single phase orthorhombic structure at room temperature. We describe magnetic susceptibility measurements of the compounds in the temperature range 300-1100K at field 1.55×10 ⁻¹ Tesla. In these compounds magnetism arises from the rare-earth ions, while Zr is non magnetic. All the compounds show antiferromagnetic behaviour at low temperature and obey Curie-Weiss law.