TmCd quadrupolar ordering and magnetic interactions

Abstract

The paramagnetic compound TmCd crystallizes with the CsCl-type structure. Its Jahn-Teller behavior was first observed by L\"uthi and coworkers. We analyze here various physical properties with a pure-harmonic-elasticity model. The structural transition between cubic and tetragonal phases is now fully described (first-order character and temperature of occurrence) as well as the magnetic susceptibility, magnetization process, specific-heat, elastic-constant, and strain data. The relevant Hamiltonian takes into account the second-order magnetoelastic coupling and the quadrupolar exchange in addition to the cubic crystal field and the Heisenberg bilinear interactions. TmCd appears to be closely related to isomorphous TmZn and completes the illustration of the competition between bilinear and quadrupolar interactions occurring in some rare-earth intermetallics. In these two compounds, the quadrupolar exchange is many times stronger than the magnetoelastic coupling and the quadrupolar ordering then drives the structural transition. This situation is opposite to that occurring in (actual) Jahn-Teller compounds.