Indirect multipolar interactions in rare-earth metals and alloys (abstract)

Abstract

The presence of large quadrupolar interactions was observed in some rare-earth conducting systems such as DySb, TmCd, TmZn, DyZn.1 In this work, we present the results of an extensive ab initio calculation of the indirect pair interactions between rare-earth ions in transition metals arising from the polarization of the electric-multipole distribution of the conduction electrons. The effective Hamiltonian of the indirect quadrupolar pair interactions is constructed self-consistently, taking into consideration antishielding and band-structure effects in the system of conduction electrons, as well as the crystal field splitting of the rare-earth ion. Slater–Koster fits to first principles energy bands are employed to accurately account for the band-structure effects. The peculiarities of each intraband or interband contribution to the Fourier transforms of the indirect couplings as well as the role played by each type of the d electrons in the conduction band are investigated. The experimental data are discussed.2