Abstract
The crystal-field energy-level structure of the ${\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}$ ground-state multiplet in ${\mathrm{ErVO}}_{4}$ was investigated by inelastic neutron scattering and magnetic susceptibility methods. The quantitative determination of the crystal-field-level energetics in conjunction with elastic-constant data was used to carry out a detailed analysis of the magnetoelastic contribution to the temperature dependence of the lattice parameters. X-ray-diffraction measurements show that the magnetoelastic effect is small, but the anisotropy with respect to the tetragonal c axis is unusual among the rare-earth orthovanadate and orthophosphate series. It was concluded that in ${\mathrm{ErVO}}_{4}$ the sixth-order multipole contribution is essential for explaining the observed thermal-expansion anomaly. A similar situation also occurs in the case of ${\mathrm{ErPO}}_{4}.$ This result is contrary to the dominating role of the quadrupole effect found previously in many rare-earth orthovanadates and orthophosphates.
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