Studies of single crystal ErCo2 under pressure and magnetic field

We measured the resistivity, magnetization, and neutron diffraction under pressure (up to 12 kbar) and magnetic fields (up to 18 T) in order to investigate the first-order magnetic transition of ErCo2 using a single crystal sample. With increasing pressure, the ferrimagnetic transition moves towards lower temperatures while it increases in temperature with magnetic fields. We note that the first-order nature of the magnetic transition is suppressed by pressure or fields. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.