Field-induced canting of magnetic moments in GdCo5 at finite temperature: first-principles calculations and high-field measurements

Journal article

We present calculations and experimental measurements of the temperature-dependent magnetization of a single crystal of GdCo5 in magnetic fields of order 60 T. At zero temperature the calculations, based on density-functional theory in the disordered-local-moment picture, predict a field-induced transition from an antiferromagnetic to a canted alignment of Gd and Co moments at 46.1 T. At higher temperatures the calculations find this critical field to increase along with the zero-field magnetization. The experimental measurements observe this transition to occur between 44-48 T at 1.4 K. Up to temperatures of at least 100 K, the experiments continue to observe the transition; however, at variance with the calculations, no strong temperature dependence of the critical field is apparent. We assign this difference to the inaccurate description of the zero-field magnetization of the calculations at low temperatures, due to the use of classical statistical mechanics. Correcting for this effect, we recover a consistent description of the high-field magnetization of GdCo5 from theory and experiment.

Authors: Patrick, CE; Kumar, S; Götze, K; Pearce, MJ; Singleton, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: IOP Science
• Journal: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 32
• Article number: 32LT01
• Publication date: 2018-07-16
• Acceptance date: 2018-06-29
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/aad029
• EISSN: 1361-648X
• ISSN: 0953-8984
• Pmid: 29957599
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR; high-field magnetization; Gd-Co ferrimagnets; density-functional and disordered-local-moment theory