Abstract
Magnetic susceptibility on basal-plane aligned DyNi 2 B 2 C powder reveals a strong anisotropic magnetic and superconducting properties for this magnetic superconductor. The intrinsic room temperature normal-state magnetic anisotropy supplies the preferred tetragonal basal-plane alignment. The observed antiferromagnetic Néel temperature T N (Dy) of 12.9 K is higher than 10-10.8 K observed for the bulk sample. Since the normal state magnetic susceptibility is very small for both applied field directions near superconducting T c onset of 4.2 K, the observed superconducting anisotropy can be attributed to the anisotropic supercurrent distribution due to the anisotropic geometric shape of aligned microcrystalline powder. © 1996 the Physical Society of the Republic of China.