Magnetic material having a flight of magnetization steps caused by temperature variation.

A flight of magnetization steps for increasing temperature has been made by making use of the compounds Mn_2-xCr_xSb, which are well known to undergo a first-order antiferromagnetic-to-ferrimagnetic phase transition for increasing temperature with the transition temperature increasing as x increases. A linear slope of magnetization for increasing temperature is also obtained in a wide temperature region of 60 K for a compound Mn_2-xCr_xSb with a heterogeneous Cr distribution in the crystal. Temperature hysteresis at the first-order transition temperature is observed for three samples with different Cr compositions. A brief discussion about some potential applications of the magnetic characteristics is given on the basis of the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]