Magnetism and high-field magnetization of RCu2

Abstract We measured the magnetization of CeCu 2 , PrCu 2 , TbCu 2 , DyCu 2 and TmCu 2 in high magnetic fields up to 40 T and in a wide temperature range from 1.3 to 150 K, and observed a metamagnetic transition with a large hysteresis. The present metamagnetic transition occurs in the ac -plane of the orthorhombic crystal structure, which was analysed on the basis of the quadrupole moment O 2 2 .