Study of structural and magnetic transition in GdCu1-xAgx

The effect of Ag substitution on structural and magnetic transition in GdCu has been studied by electrical resistivity and heat capacity measurements. With Ag substitution magnetic transition temperature (T-N2) remain nearly constant whereas the structural transition temperature (T-s) decrease down to similar to 160 K for x = 0 - 0.06 in GdCu1-xAgx. However the structural transition is absent for x = 0.08 and 0.10 contrary to expectation from linear variation of Ts in the range x = 0 - 0.06. These studies suggest that magnetic ordering of cubic phase hinders the structural transition resulting in co-existing orthorhombic and cubic phase at low temperature.