Ferromagnetism and spin reorientation in Sm12Fe14Al5

Abstract The single crystal of the new ternary compound Sm 12 Fe 14 Al 5 was grown and its crystallographic and magnetic properties were investigated. Sm 12 Fe 14 Al 5 has a hexagonal structure of the space group p-3m1 and shows ferromagnetism with a Curie temperature of 245 K. The easy direction of magnetization is parallel to the c -axis at temperatures between 245 and 85 K; however, it changes to the c -plane below 85 K through a first-order-like phase transition. No saturation is observed in the magnetization curve even under the applied field of 55 kOe at 5 K. Sm 12 Fe 14 Al 5 seems to have a large coercive field at very low temperatures. The anisotropy field was estimated at 5 and 120 K and the saturation magnetization of low temperature phase is explained assuming a ferromagnetic coupling between Fe and Sm sublattices.