We have investigated the individual magnetic moments of Ni, Mn and Tb atoms in the intermetallic compound TbNi2Mn in the Laves phase (magnetic phase transition temperature TC ∼131 K) by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) studies at 300 K, 80 K and 20 K. Analyses of the experimental results reveal that Ni atoms at 20 K in an applied magnetic field of 1 T carry an intrinsic magnetic moment of spin and orbital magnetic moment contributions 0.53±0.01 μB and 0.05±0.01 μB, respectively. These moment values are similar to those of the maximum saturated moment of Ni element. A very small magnetic moment of order
AbstractWe have investigated the individual magnetic moments of Ni, Mn and Tb atoms in the intermetallic compound TbNi 2 Mn in the Laves phase (magnetic phase transition temperature T C ~ 131 K) by xray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) studies at 300 K, 80 K and 20 K. Analyses of the experimental results reveal that Ni atoms at 20 K in an applied magnetic field of 1 T carry an intrinsic magnetic moment of spin and orbital magnetic moment contributions 0.53 ± 0.01 μ B and 0.05 ± 0.01 μ B , respectively. These moment values are similar to those of the maximum saturated moment of Ni element. A very small magnetic moment of order < 0.1 μ B has been measured for Mn. This suggests that Mn is antiferromagnetically ordered across the two nearly equally occupied sites of 16d and 8a. A magnetic moment of up to ~0.3 μ B has been observed for the Tb atoms.Identification of a magnetic moment on the Ni atoms has provided further evidence for the mechanism of enhancement of the magnetic phase transition temperature in TbNi 2 Mn compared 2 with TbNi 2 (T C ~ 37.5 K) and TbMn 2 (T C ~ 54 K) due to rare earth-transition metal (R-T) and transition metal -transition metal (T-T) interactions. The behaviour of the x-ray magnetic circular dichroism spectra of TbNi 2 Mn at 300 K, 80 K and 20 K -above and below the magnetic ordering temperature T C ~ 131 K -is discussed.