https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020090
Element-specific magnetic long- and short-range order and competing interactions in GdxEu1-xS
1
Institut für Festkörperphysik des Forschungszentrums Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
2
Northern Illinois University, Department of Physics, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
3
Labor für Festkörperphysik, ETH Hönggerberg, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
4
Institut Laue Langevin, BP 156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
5
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
Corresponding author: a T.Brueckel@fz-juelich.de
Received:
25
April
2001
Revised:
3
December
2001
Published online: 15 April 2002
We report on an investigation of the magnetic properties of GdxEu1-xS mixed crystals with compositions in the range of 0.6<x<1. For the two samples Gd0.8Eu0.2S and Gd0.73Eu0.27S a long-range antiferromagnetic order was observed at low temperatures. Element-specific measurements exhibited a different temperature dependence of the reduced sublattice magnetisation of the two magnetic species. A model calculation and Monte Carlo simulations revealed that the different temperature dependence is due to frustration effects. These frustration effects lead to a breakdown of the long-range order for higher europium contents. For the Gd0.67Eu0.33S-sample we were able to observe a short-range antiferromagnetic order with correlation lengths of a few 10 Å with X-ray resonance exchange scattering.
PACS: 75.25.+z – Spin arrangements in magnetically ordered materials (including neutron and spin-polarised electron studies, synchrotron-source X-ray scattering, etc.). / 75.40.Cx – Static properties (order parameter, static susceptibility, heat capacities, critical exponents, etc.) / 78.70.Ck – X-ray scattering
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2002