Exchange and hyperfine fields acting on dilute ¹⁵³Eu In SmCo₅, Sm₂(Co_1-xFe_x)₁₇ and Sm₂Co_xM_y(rm M = Fe, Cu, Zn, Zr)

Mössbauer source experiments of dilute ¹⁵³Eu and ⁵⁷Fe in SmCo₅ and ¹⁵³Eu in Sm₂(Co_1-xFe_x)₁₇ and Sm₂ Co_x M_y at 4.1 K were performed. After the ¹⁵³Sm →β-¹⁵³ decay the Eu ion is trivalent and exhibits extremely large hyperfine interactions due to strong exchange fields. Since the exchange interactions are comparable to the Eu³⁺ spin-orbit coupling, we calculated the expectation values of the Eu³⁺ spin, magnetic hyperfine field and electric field gradient as a function of exchange field and second order crystalline field, by diagonalization of the full Hamiltonian of spin orbit, exchange and crystalline field. For SmCo₅ and Sm₂(Co_1-xFe_x)₁₇ the exchange and crystalline fields are known and thus allow us to analyze our experimental results and obtain the polarized conduction electron contributions to the magnetic hyperfine field. The contribution due to magnetic neighbour polarization of conduction electrons is found to be linear in exchange field. The experimental results together with the theoretical analysis yield the Eu electric field gradient 4f Sternheimer shielding factor R_Q to be 0.26±04. It is shown that Mössbauer studies of two probes (¹⁵⁵Gd and Eu³⁺) in magnetic systems yield directly the second order crystalline field, the exchange field and the various contributions to the hyperfine field acting on the Eu nucleus. From the experimentally measured magnetic hyperfine fields alone, approximate values for the exchange fields in the mixed systems Sm₂Co_xM_y were determined.