Browsing by Author "White, RD"

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    Incommensurate magnetic order in PrNiAl4
    (Australian and New Zealand Institutes of Physics, 2016-02-02) White, RD; Hutchison, WD; Avdeev, M; Nishimura, K
    The RNiAl4 intermetallic series (where R = Ln3+) has been the subject of much investigation over a number of years. These compounds are known to possess some interesting magnetic behaviours including multiple magnetic phases and metamagnetism. TbNiAl4, ErNiAl4 and NdNiAl4 are all known to have incommensurate magnetic structures determined from neutron diffraction, whereas the presence of an incommensurate magnetic phase in PrNiAl4 is more tentative, based only on specific heat and magnetisation measurements. Recent neutron powder diffraction experiments have confirmed the presence of this incommensurate magnetic phase at 7 K and 7.5 K, well within the range of 6.9-8.1 K predicted by the specific heat data. Analysis of the diffraction patterns puts the propagation vector of the magnetic phase at k = (0.071(1), 1, 0), with the magnetic moments pointing along the a-axis.