Magnetic excitations in praseodymium

Journal Article · Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1979 · Phys. Rev., B: Condens. Matter; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.20.1105· OSTI ID:6065968

Houmann, J G; Rainford, B D; Jensen, J; Mackintosh, A R

The magnetic excitations in a single crystal of dhcp Pr have been studied by inelastic neutron scattering. The excitations on the hexagonal sites, and their dependence on magnetic fields up to 43 kOe applied in the basal plane, have been analyzed in terms of a Hamiltonian in which exchange, crystal-field, and magnetoelastic interactions are included. The exchange is found to be strongly anisotropic, and this anisotropy is manifested directly in a splitting of most branches of the dispersion relations. By considering a variety of magnetic properties, we have been able to determine the crystal-field level scheme for the hexagonal sites fairly unambiguously. The first excited level is 3.5 meV above the ground state. The value of the magnetoelastic coupling deduced from the excitations is in good agreement with values obtained from other measurements. A field-dependent interaction with the phonons has been observed, and a pronounced broadening of the acoustic excitations of long wavelength is ascribed to the influence of the conduction electrons. The first excited state on the cubic ions is about 8.3 meV above the ground state. The corresponding excitations show a pronounced dispersion, but the exchange anisotropy is of less importance than for the hexagonal sites.

• Research Organization: Physics Department, Riso National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark
• OSTI ID: 6065968
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev., B: Condens. Matter; (United States), Vol. 20:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
PRASEODYMIUM
CRYSTAL FIELD
MAGNETIC PROPERTIES
NEUTRON DIFFRACTION
ANISOTROPY
ELASTICITY
EXCHANGE INTERACTIONS
EXCITATION
HCP LATTICES
PHONONS
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL LATTICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIFFRACTION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY-LEVEL TRANSITIONS
HEXAGONAL LATTICES
INTERACTIONS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
METALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUASI PARTICLES
RARE EARTHS
SCATTERING
TENSILE PROPERTIES
360104* - Metals & Alloys- Physical Properties
654003 - Radiation & Shielding Physics- Neutron Interactions with Matter