Calculating the Magnetic Anisotropy of Rare-Earth-Transition-Metal Ferrimagnets

Magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the microscopic origin of permanent magnetism, is often explained in terms of ferromagnets. However, the best performing permanent magnets based on rare earths and transition metals (RE-TM) are in fact ferrimagnets, consisting of a number of magnetic sublattices. Here...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2018-03, Vol.120 (9), p.097202-097202, Article 097202
Main Authors: Patrick, Christopher E, Kumar, Santosh, Balakrishnan, Geetha, Edwards, Rachel S, Lees, Martin R, Petit, Leon, Staunton, Julie B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anisotropy
Crystal growth
Ferrimagnetism
Ferrimagnets
Ferromagnetism
First principles
Lattices (mathematics)
Magnetic anisotropy
Magnetism
Mathematical analysis
Permanent magnets
Rare earth elements
Single crystals
Subgroups
Temperature dependence
Transition metals
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Summary:Magnetocrystalline anisotropy, the microscopic origin of permanent magnetism, is often explained in terms of ferromagnets. However, the best performing permanent magnets based on rare earths and transition metals (RE-TM) are in fact ferrimagnets, consisting of a number of magnetic sublattices. Here we show how a naive calculation of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the classic RE-TM ferrimagnet GdCo_{5} gives numbers that are too large at 0 K and exhibit the wrong temperature dependence. We solve this problem by introducing a first-principles approach to calculate temperature-dependent magnetization versus field (FPMVB) curves, mirroring the experiments actually used to determine the anisotropy. We pair our calculations with measurements on a recently grown single crystal of GdCo_{5}, and find excellent agreement. The FPMVB approach demonstrates a new level of sophistication in the use of first-principles calculations to understand RE-TM magnets.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.120.097202