Magnetic susceptibility and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance study of the electronic structure of amorphous and crystalline NiCuP alloys

Abstract Magnetic susceptibility and 31 P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements have been performed on amorphous ( Ni 1 − x Cu x ) 80 P 20 and crystalline ( Ni 1 − x Cu x ) 3 P alloys to complement previous low temperature specific heat and NMR work on the NiCuP system. After correction for ion core diamagnetism, the alloys were found to be Pauli paramagnetic. The Pauli susceptibility decreases much more rapidly with increasing copper content than does the electronic specific heat coefficient, indicating a gradual weakening of the exchange enhancement of the conduction band susceptibility of d electrons. The change in the 31 P NMR parameters with copper content was also in accordance with a lowering of the d band density of states at the Fermi level toward the copper-rich side. The 31 P NMR study gave useful information also on the metallurgical inhomogeneity of some of the crystalline alloys.