Nonaxial electric field gradients in amorphous rare earth alloys

Abstract

The authors show that a model of magnetic amorphous rare earth alloys with nonaxial electric field gradients is equivalent to the simple model with axial crystal fields -DJ_z(i)² and D positive, when the rare earth moment is large and z(i) is a local axis varying randomly from site to site. For small values of J, the axial-field model is less justifiable, especially for non-Kramers ions. They discuss the consequences of nonaxial field gradients for some magnetic and nonmagnetic properties.