Magnetic properties and thermal expansion of DyBa2Cu3O7-δ

Linear thermal expansion measurements have been performed up to 70 K with a capacitive dilatometer on a DyBa2Cu3O7-delta polycrystalline sample which has been characterized by SEM micrography and magnetic Meissner effect. We report first some of these results which show the absence of any magnetically ordered impurity phase at low temperature in our sample. The thermal expansion also does not show the anomaly at 11 K previously reported, so we suggest that this anomaly was rather due to the magnetic ordering of an impurity phase than resulting from crystal field effects. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.