  The Laves phase compound, YCo2, is a well-known exchange-enahnced Pauli
paramagnet. We report here that, in the nanocrystalline form, this compound
interestingly is an itinerant ferromagnet at room temperature with a low
coercive-field. The magnitude of the saturation moment (about 1 Bohr-magneton
per formula unit) is large enough to infer that the ferromagnetism is not a
surface phenomenon in these nanocrystallites. Since these ferromagnetic
nanocrystallines are easy to synthesize with a stable form in air, one can
explore applications, particularly where hysteresis is a disadvantage.
