Magnetization of RFe3 intermetallic compounds: Molecular field theory analysis

Abstract

We report magnetization measurements of all RFe3 intermetallic compounds known to form (R = Y, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm). A two-sublattice molecular field model is employed to analyze the data except in the case of YFe3, for which one magnetic sublattice is assumed. In general, the model adequately describes the temperature dependence of the magnetization. For SmFe3 our results suggest that the samarium and iron moments are ferromagnetically coupled.