On the magnetic anomaly in ErFe3at 47K

Abstract

The low temperature anomaly in ErFe₃ is examined within the context of the point charge crystal field model. It is argued that the rearrangement of the c and h iron atoms, believed to occur at 47K, is due to competition between the two crystallographically inequivalent RE sites in minimising the free energy of the crystal. In particular, it is suggested that both the second- and fourth-order crystal field terms at the c(6) RE sites are primarily responsible for the displacement of the c and h iron atoms at 47K.