Neutron-powder-diffraction study of the nuclear and magnetic structures of the antiferromagnetic superconductorHoNi2B

Microscopic model for the magnetic subsystem inHoNi2B2C

“…The xray structure analysis and the neutron-scattering experiments performed by Goldman et al [3,4] and Grigereit et al [5][6][7]. showed that an incommensurate modulated magnetic structures with the wave-vectors Kc = 0.915c * and Ka = 0.585a * occur in the temperature range 4.7-6 K. At temperatures below 4.7 K they vanish and an antiferromagnetic reflections corresponding to alternating ferromagnetic ab-planes of Ho 3+ localizad moments appear.…”

“…Siegrist et al [9] and Huang et al [6] determined the structure of Lu and Ho 1:2:2:1 compounds as the body-centered tetragonal lattice with the space group I4/mmm. The xray structure analysis and the neutron-scattering experiments performed by Goldman et al [3,4] and Grigereit et al [5][6][7].…”

Rare-earth metal transition metal borocarbide and nitridoborate superconductors

“…HoNi 2 [B 2 C] exhibits exactly the same type of ordering at low temperatures as the Dy and Pr compounds, but just below T N an incommensurate spi- ral state with k ¼ (0, 0, 0.91) occurs, in which the ferromagnetically arranged adjacent layers are not exactly antiparallel aligned but are rotated within (001) by about 16.6 . This leads to a period approximately equal to twelve times the c-axis for the nuclear structure [14,132,265,267,274,275]. Additionally, an incommensurate aaxis modulation with k ¼ (0.585, 0, 0) was observed in a narrow temperature interval between these two phases below about 6.5 K [14,265,267,275,276].…”

Transport properties along c -axis of DyNi 2 B 2 C

“…More detailed studies on single crystals of these compounds containing magnetic rare-earth ions show possess highly anisotropic normal state magnetizations and anisotropic and suppressed superconducting properties, which indicate the existence of a significant interaction between the local magnetic moments and superconducting electrons [5][6][7][8][9][10]. It has been reported that among RNi 2 B 2 C (R = rare earth elements) only antiferromagnetic state exists at low temperature region for R = Gd, Dy, Ho, Er, and Tm [11][12][13]. Also the neutron scattering measurement has contributed to find the magnetic structures and magnetic interactions among rare earth elements and it turned out that some of these compounds show magnetic and superconducting properties simultaneously at certain temperature [11][12][13].…”

“…It has been reported that among RNi 2 B 2 C (R = rare earth elements) only antiferromagnetic state exists at low temperature region for R = Gd, Dy, Ho, Er,. Also the neutron scattering measurement has contributed to find the magnetic structures and magnetic interactions among rare earth elements and it turned out that some of these compounds show magnetic and superconducting properties simultaneously at certain temperature [11][12][13]. Especially, RNi 2 B 2 C (R = Tm, Er, Ho, and Dy) have the superconducting transition temperatures T C = 10.8 K, 10.6 K, 8.2 K, and 6.2 K, and the antiferromagnetic Néel temperatures T N = 1.5 K, 6.0 K, 5.…”