Magnetic susceptibility and knight shift measurements in aluminum-rare earth alloys

Abstract

Measurements of magnetic susceptibility and solvent Knight shift in dilute alloys of rare earth metals in aluminum have been carried out. The susceptibility results give a clear indication that localized moments exist on each impurity except La, Yb, and Lu, and that the coupling between the total spin and The total orbital angular momentum of f electrons is dominant in determining the size of localized moments on solutes. The maximum magnitude of localized moments observed was over 10ub which is impossible without a contribution to the magnetic moment from orbital angular momentum. The susceptibility also shows the deviation from Curie law behavior resulting from the population of excited states. The solvent Knight shift has permitted a particularly pepetrating investigation of solute structure because it is influenced only by the polarization of electron spins. The observations show conclusively that; the spin magnetization opposes the total impurity magnetization in lighter rare earths while aiding it in heavier rare earths.