Anisotropy and Exchange Effects in Heavy Rare-Earth–Cobalt Compounds of the RCo5 Type

Abstract

A series of compounds of Co and heavy rare-earth elements of the RCo5 type (where R = Tb, Dy, Ho) is investigated by the neutron diffraction method in a wide temperature range (from 4.2 to 1050 K). The atomic and magnetic structures are investigated. According to the investigations these compounds are collinear ferrimagnetics before as well as after the spin-orientation transition. The data obtained are interpreted in terms of the phenomenological theory of magneto-crystalline anisotropy of the RCo5 compounds by Irkhin and Rosenfeld. In terms of this theory the anisotropy constants of the R-sublattice (at 0 K) and the parameters of intersublattice exchange are obtained.