Reentrant behavior in the temperature dependence of metamagnetic transitions in single crystal Nd/sub 6/Fe/sub 13-x/Al/sub 1+x/

Nd/sub 6/Fe/sub 13-x/Al/sub 1+x/, (/spl delta/) is a complex antiferromagnet with a Neel temperature that ranges from /spl sim/250 K to /spl sim/350 K. Studies of polycrystalline samples of the Nd compound have shown that the material undergoes a series of metamagnetic transitions as a function of magnetic field. In the present study, single crystals of /spl delta/ have been grown and characterized. Low temperature magnetization studies demonstrate that there are a number of competing magnetic interactions in the material, which have different temperature dependencies. As a result, for a narrow range of fields, the /spl delta/ crystals exhibit unique reentrant magnetization versus temperature behavior.