Electrical and magnetotransport properties of canted antiferromagnet Dy/sub 5/Si/sub 2/Ge/sub 2/

Summary form only given. Since the giant magnetocaloric effect is encountered in a ferromagnetic Gd/sub 5/Si/sub 2/Ge/sub 2/ alloy near room temperature it is considered as a suitable material for magnetic refrigerator applications. Also a commensurate structural transition occurs at the magnetic transition temperature and there is a good correlation between the crystal structure and magnetic properties. Such observations have triggered numerous experimental studies on similar rare earth alloys and compounds. We have synthesized its Dy- analogue, namely, Dy/sub 5/Si/sub 2/Ge/sub 2/ and have characterized it by means of room temperature X-ray diffraction, ac magnetic susceptibility (15 K - 300 K), electrical resistivity (at zero field and at 6 T), thermoelectric power (15 K - 300 K) and neutron diffraction (at 300 K and 9.2 K) experiments.