Abstract
Recent work on the heat capacity of HoAl 2 revealed an anomaly at 20°K, the origin of which was not understood. It is now suggested that this anomaly originates from a change in the easy direction of magnetization brought about by a combined effect of crystalline electric field and exchange field. Calculations by the equivalent operator method have been performed employing reasonable combinations of crystal field parameters. The exchange field acting on Ho 3+ is determined in a self-consistent manner. Results are presented to illustrate the expected occurrence of a change in the easy direction of magnetization for a range of crystal field parameters which are compatible with those found for other RAl 2 compounds. The magnetic moment on Ho 3+ ion calculated on the basis of this model is in agreement with experiment.
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