Parastriction: A new probe for quadrupolar interactions in rare-earth compounds

A new method called parastriction for investigating the quadrupolar interactions in cubic rare-earth intermetallic compounds is presented. Parastriction measures the rare-earth quadrupolar moment induced by an applied magnetic field through the anisotropic deformation of the lattice. The magnetoelastic coefficients associated with the two principal strain modes (tetragonal and rhombohedral) are thereby obtained. The quadrupolar exchange parameters may be evaluated without any ambiguity for compounds with low magnetic-ordering temp. Application to the heavy rare-earth--Zn compounds is then given.18 refs.--AA