Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity studies in CeAl<SUB>2</SUB>Ga<SUB>2</SUB> and CeNi<SUB>2</SUB>Sn<SUB>2</SUB>

Magnetic behaviour of the compounds CeAl2Ga2 and CeNi2Sn2 is investigated by magnetic susceptibility (&#967;) and heat capacity (C) studies. The former compound, known to crystallize in the body centered tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type structure, exhibits magnetic ordering at about 8K. Since our studies show the corresponding Gd analogue does not order above 22K, CeAl2Ga2 exhibits anomalous magnetism. On the other hand, the compound CeNi2Sn2, found to crystallize in the CaBe2Ge2 structure, does not order magnetically above 2K; interestingly, &#967; exhibits Curie-Weiss behaviour till the lowest measured temperature (&#x22CD;2K) and the linear term in C is rather large (&#x22CD;250 mJ/mole K2)