Electronic and magnetic properties of RECu3Al2 (RE = Sm, Gd and Tb)

We present the electronic and magnetic properties of RECu3Al2 (RE = Sm, Gd and Tb) intermetallic compounds using the first principles density functional theory (DFT) within both generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and local spin density approximation (LSDA). The variation in the metallic and magnetic properties in these compounds is due to ‘f’ states of RE elements. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative theoretical prediction of the structural parameter like lattice constant (a0 and c0), bulk modulus (B) and pressure derivative of bulk modulus (B′), specific heat (γ) and total magnetic moment for these intermetallic compounds.