Experimental and theoretical investigations of the magnetic susceptibility and anisotropy of Nd(OH)3.

Abstract

Measurements are reported on the magnetic susceptibilities and anisotropies of single crystals of Nd(OH${)}_{3}$ in the temperature range between 300 and 77 K. The intermediate-coupling scheme with J mixing under the crystal field of ${C}_{3h}$ symmetry is used to obtain the crystal-field energy levels and their eigenfunctions. Matrix elements of the Coulomb, spin-orbit, and crystal-field interactions within the ${f}^{3}$ configuration are calculated. The g values are found to be ${g}_{?}$=3.65\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01 and ${g}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}$=1.95\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.01 in close agreement with the experimental values quoted by P. D. Scott (Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1970). The calculated crystal-field splitting explains successfully the temperature dependence of the specific heat as observed by Chirico and Westrum [J. Chem. Thermodyn. 12, 311 (1980)] in the temperature range between 350 and 20 K. Saturated magnetizations parallel and perpendicular to the applied magnetic field are found to be 271 and 145 emu/${\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$, respectively.