UC Irvine

We have succeeded in growing a single crystal of tetragonal SmCu 2Ge2 in Sn-flux and measured the x-ray diffraction and magnetic susceptibility. The volume of the unit-cell and the magnetic behavior are consistent with trivalent Sm in SmCu2Ge2. It was confirmed that the temperature independent Van Vleck term arising from the J = 7/2 first excited state gives a large contribution to the magnetic susceptibility in SmCu2Ge2 similar to other Sm compounds. The difference in energy between the J=5/2 and 7/2 angular momentum states is roughly estimated to be ΔE ∼ 1800 K from the magnetic susceptibility. © 2012 The Physical Society of Japan.