Browsing by Author "Downes, JE"

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    Intrinsic reduction of the ordered 4f magnetic moments in semiconducting rare-earth nitride thin films: DyN, ErN, and HoN
    (American Physical Society, 2014-02-26) Cortie, DL; Brown, JD; Brück, S; Saerbeck, T; Evans, JP; Fritzsche, H; Wang, XL; Downes, JE; Klose, F
    Polarized neutron reflectometry and x-ray reflectometry were used to determine the nanoscale magnetic and chemical depth profiles of the heavy rare-earth nitrides HoN, ErN, and DyN in the form of 15- to 40-nm-thick films. The net ferromagnetic components are much lower than the predictions of density-functional theory and Hund's rules for a simple ferromagnetic ground state in these 4f ionic materials, which points to the intrinsic contribution of crystal-field effects and noncollinear spin structures. The magnetic moment per rare-earth ion was determined as a function of temperature in the range 5–100 K at fields of 1–4 T. It is demonstrated that the films are stoichiometric within 1–3% and magnetically homogeneous on the nanometer scale.© 2014, American Physical Society.