Chapter 150 Magnetic properties of nonmetallic lanthanide compounds

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the magnetic properties of lanthanide compounds.. Specific magnetic and magnetoelastic properties of the crystals are determined by the localized electronic magnetic moments of lanthanide ions, regularly distributed in a crystal lattice, and by their interactions with each other and the surrounding ions. Other sources of magnetism in these substances are the nuclear spins of lanthanide ions and diamagnetic ligands as well as effective magnetic moments of paramagnetic impurities. Practically all methods of physical experiments at low and ultralow temperatures—calorimetry, dilatometry, direct measurement of magnetic susceptibility and magnetization, gamma spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), resonance and nonresonance optical and acoustic spectroscopy, and spectroscopy of thermal neutrons—are used in investigations of magnetic properties of the lanthanide crystals. Severalinvestigations provide information not only of scientific but also significant applied value, particularly in problems of thermometry at low and ultralow temperatures and of magnetic cooling. The magnetic and magnetoelastic properties have been systematically investigated in rare-earth ethylsulfates (RES), tetrafluorides LiRF 4 with scheelite structure, RMO 4 crystals having zircon structure (M = V, P, As), trifluorides RF 3 , and lanthanide elpasolites.