Electron spin resonance study of Gd in the nuclear cooling agent: PrNi 5 single crystals

R. Levin*, D. Davidov, A. Grayevsky, D. Shaltiel, V. Zevin

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The ESR of Gd in single crystals of PrNi5 is observed to exhibit significant angular dependence of the resonance position and linewidth at low temperatures. This is interpreted in terms of the axial spin Hamiltonian which takes the anisotropic susceptibility and the Gd-Pr exchange into consideration. A lineshape analysis enables the authors to derive the axial crystal field parameter D=165+or-30 G and an isotropic Gd-Pr exchange of 1.0+or-0.2 meV. The Gd ESR linewidth exhibits a dramatic increase with increasing temperature; the thermal broadening is angularly dependent. This dramatic increase of the linewidth versus temperature is similar to that observed by others for the Pr NMR in PrNi5 single crystals. Both the NMR and the ESR thermal broadenings are attributed to low-frequency fluctuations of the Pr ions induced by the Pr-Pr exchange coupling. A model, originally developed to explain the ionic relaxation rate in cubic Van-Vleck compounds, is adapted to the present case of hexagonal Van-Vleck compounds.

Original languageEnglish
Article number028
Pages (from-to)1285-1301
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Physics F: Metal Physics
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1980

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