Crystalline electric fields of rare-earth ions in metals II. Comparison with experiment

Abstract

The crystal-field parameters calculated using a theory of OPW type developed in the previous paper have been compared with the values deduced from experiment for the heavy rare earth metals and two dilute alloy systems, Er: Mg and Er: Zr. Good agreement with experiment is obtained for A⁰₂<r²> for thulium metal, and also for the A⁶₆<r⁶> parameters in all cases where data is available. If a value for the f resonance parameter of -9.8 × 10^-2 is chosen, the correct g-values for Er: Mg are obtained. In the other cases considered agreement with experiment is less satisfactory but is nevertheless considerably better than point charge calculations.