Mössbauer study of spin reorientation in Y_1.8Er_0.2Fe₁₄B

Authors

M. Abe , Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152, Japan
Sy_Hwang Liou, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
C.L. Chien, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
N.C. Koon, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
B.N. Das, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
E. Callen, The American University, Washington, DC

Date of this Version

April 1987

Comments

Published by American Institute of Physics. J. Appl. Phys. 61, 3568 (1987). ©1987 American Institute of Physics. Permission to use. Journal home page = http://jap.aip.org/jap/.

Abstract

Fe⁵⁷ Mössbauer spectra were taken from 300 K down to 4.2 K for two single-crystal samples of Y_1.8Er_0.2Fe₁₄B, one cut with its [001] axis normal to the surface, the other with its diagonal of [100], [010], and [001] axes normal to the surface. The former sample has shown that the angle between the Fe spin and the [001] increases continuously below ~90 K. This qualitatively agrees with the spin reorientation (i.e., the easy axis of magnetization rotates away from the [001] toward [100] on cooling below ~90 K) which have already been observed by torque magnetometry. The latter sample has shown that the Fe spin actually rotates continuously; abrupt change of Fe spin direction, which have been already suggested to occur in Er₂Fe₁₄B, does not occur in Y_1.8Er_0.2Fe₁₄B. The samples were so thick that the intensity of strong absorption lines were saturated. We have derived a formula with which the saturation effect can be corrected in order to determine the angle of the Fe spin direction correctly.