Anomalous structural properties of some RCu2Ge2 compounds (R = La, Gd-Tm)

In this paper, we address the issue of possible quadrupole ordering in RCu2Ge2 compounds. In the literature, there are reports on anomalous behaviour of lattice parameters, however, lack of high quality data makes the relevant analysis dubious. Therefore, we attempt to perform precise, non-ambient XRD measurements within 12-300 K temperature range. Our results confirm peculiar temperature behaviour of the c-lattice parameter that exhibits a well defined minimum at about 60-120 K for majority of investigated compounds. However, in contrast to the literature, the anomalous behaviour does not exhibit discontinuities. On the other hand, such behaviour has been evidenced for La-based compounds (LaCu2Ge2 and LaNi2Ge2), where the 4f orbitals are unoccupied.