Spectrum of magnetic hyperfine fields at ^111 C probe nuclei in the pseudobinary rare-earth Laves-phase compounds R_(1-x)Y_xCo₂

Abstract

The spectrum of the magnetic hyperfine fields at the closed-shell probe nucleus ^111 Cd on the rare earth (R) site of the pseudobinary Laves-phase compounds R_81-x)Y_xCo₂ has been investigated by perturbed angular correlation (PAC) spectroscopy at 10 K for the rare earth R=Tb and Ho at various Y concentrations x ≤ 0.8 and for R=Gd, Dy, Er at the concentration x=0.3. Up to four components with different magnetic interaction frequencies ν^(i) _(M) could be resolved from the PAC spectra. The relative intensities of these components are in fair agreement with those of a binomial distribution of Y atoms on the four nearest neighbor (NN) R sites of the probe nucleus. For all R constituents, one finds a strictly linear relation between the number n_(R) of NN R atoms and the magnetic hyperfine frequencies: ν^(i) _(M) =ν_(M)(4Y)+∆ ν(M) Xn_(R).The frequency ν_(M)(4Y)=35(2) MHz is independent of the R constituent and of the Y concentration up to x ≤ 0.6. These properties identify ν_(M)(4Y) as the contribution of the Co 3d moments to the hyperfine interaction at the ^111 Cdsite. The frequency steps ∆ ν_(M)[≤ 0.1 ν_(M)(4Y)] reflect the spin polarization directly induced by the 4f spins at the probe nucleus. From Gd to Er, the spin polarization decreases much stronger than expected from the linear variation of the 4f spin in the heavy R series. An indirect 4f contribution caused by a dependence of the Co 3d moment on the number of R neighbors can be excluded. The relation ν_(M)^(i) = ν_(M)(4Y) + ∆ν_(M) X n_(R) then implies that the contributions of the 3d and 4f spins to the magnetic hyperfine field in RCo₂ have the same relative sign.