Magnetization studies have been performed on a polycrystalline sample of Dy${}_5$Si${}_3$Ge as a function of an applied magnetic field (up to 50 kOe) and hydrostatic pressure (up to 10 kbar) in the 5–300 K temperature range. The anomalous behavior of the magnetic susceptibility indicates that a Griffiths-like phase exists at low magnetic fields and pressures up to 10 kbar. We present evidence that the high-temperature second-order ferromagnetic transition can be coupled with the low-temperature first-order crystallographic transformation into a single first-order magnetic-crystallographic transformation using a magnetic field and hydrostatic pressure as tuning parameters. The effect of pressure on the Griffiths-like phase is reported and analyzed in the framework of the complex competition between the interslab and intraslab magnetic interactions.

• Received 3 June 2013
• Revised 2 October 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.214429