MAGNETIC AND THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF NONSUPERCONDUCTING (Y,PR)BA2CU3O6

The concentration dependence of the room-temperature lattice constants and the concentration and temperature dependence of the specific heat C(T) and the magnetic susceptibility have been measured on the tetragonal, nonsuperconducting phase of Y(1-x)Pr(x)Ba2Cu3O6. The effective paramagnetic moment mu-eff is independent of x and has an average value of 2.7 +/- 0.2-mu-B. For PrBa2Cu3O6, the Neel temperature T(N) for Pr moment ordering is 10.5 K as compared to T(N) = 17 K for the orthorhombic PrBa2Cu3O7 phase. The T(N) is depressed rapidly with Y doping in the oxygen-depleted compound and goes to zero at x almost-equal-to 0.4-0.5. At low temperatures and x less-than-or-equal-to 0.5, C(T)/T vs T2 is nonlinear and shows a rapid decrease of C(T)/T indicative of strong magnetic correlations.