1. Inelastic neutron scattering investigation of the crystal field excitations of NdCo$_5$
- Author
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Passos, F. de Almeida, Nilsen, G. J., Patrick, C. E., Le, M. D., Balakrishnan, G., Kumar, Santosh, Thamizhavel, A., Cornejo, D. R., and Jiménez, J. Larrea
- Subjects
Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science - Abstract
We present an inelastic neutron scattering study of the crystal electric field levels in the intermetallic ferrimagnets RECo$_{5}$ (RE = Nd and Y). In NdCo$_{5}$, measurements at $5~$K reveal two levels at approximately 28.9 and 52.9 meV. Crystal field calculations including the exchange field $B_{\textrm{exc}}$ from the Co sites account for both of these, as well as the spectrum at temperatures above the spin-reorientation transition at $\sim 280$~K. In particular, it is found that both a large hexagonal crystal field parameter $A_{6}^6\langle r^6 \rangle$ and $B_{\textrm{exc}}$ are required to reproduce the data, with the latter having a much larger value than that deduced from previous computational and experimental studies. Our study sheds light on the delicate interplay of terms in the rare-earth Hamiltonian of RECo$_5$ systems, and is therefore expected to stimulate further experimental and computational work on the broader family of rare-earth permanent magnets.
- Published
- 2023