We report investigations on the ground-state magnetic properties of the intermetallic compound GdCu through dc magnetization measurements. GdCu undergoes first-order martensitic-type structural transition over a wide temperature window of coexisting phases. The high-temperature cubic and the low-temperature orthorhombic phases have different magnetic character and they show antiferromagnetic and helimagnetic orderings below 145 and 45 K, respectively. We observe a clear signature of a glassy magnetic phase below the helimagnetic ordering temperature, which is marked by thermomagnetic irreversibility, aging, and memory effects. The glassy magnetic phase in GdCu is found to be rather intriguing, with its origin lying in the interfacial frustration due to the distinct magnetic character of the coexisting phases.

• Received 11 December 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.134427