Comparison of inelastic magnetic neutron scattering on PrBa2Cu3O7 and NdBa2Cu3O7

Abstract Inelastic magnetic neutron scattering on these compounds reveals for Pr and Nd crystal-field (CF) splittings of the order of 30–40 meV. While NdBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 exhibits sharp CF transitions allowing for a fully determined CF scheme, the Pr magnetic moment in PrBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 shows the typical features of instability, which we account for the total T C suppression in this compound. As in ErBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 , we found in NdBa 2 Cu 3 O 7 a non negligible density of states of conduction electrons at the rare earth site (N(E F )J ex = 0.0125). In addition, the quasielastic response below T C looks mainly like a Gaussian line, which we attribute to antiferromagnetic correlations in analogy to other magnetically ordering rare earth systems.