Magnetic Structure of PrFe sub( 4)As sub( 12) Skutterudite - Polarised Neutron Study

The magnetic structure of the PrFe ... As ... filled skutterudite was studied on single crystals by means of polarised neutron diffraction. The obtained flipping-ratio data were treated within the framework of the atomic-site susceptibility tensor approach. Refinement of the structure revealed two magnetic sub-lattices: one consisting of fully aligned moments of the Pr-ions and a second comprised of moments of the Fe-ions that almost compensate one another. The magnetisation of the Pr-sublattice has extremely small anisotropy and even in the weakest field applied (0.3 T), holding sufficiently the polarisation of incident neutron beam, the Pr-moments are parallel to applied field. Although the total magnetisation of Fe-sublattice also follows the direction of applied field, individual moments point in various directions, depending on orientation of the crystal, temperature and strength of the magnetic field. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)