Eur. Phys. J. B 41, 445-449 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00337-0

Interplay between structural and magnetic properties of Lu₂Fe₁₇ at high pressure

¹ ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
² Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna Moscow Reg., Russia
³ Russian Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, 123182 Moscow, Russia
⁴ Institute for Metal Physics, Ural Division of RAS, 620219 Ekaterinburg, Russia

Corresponding author: ^a denk@nf.jinr.ru

Received: 7 July 2004
Revised: 6 September 2004
Published online: 5 November 2004

Abstract

A crystal structure of Lu₂Fe₁₇ was studied by means of neutron powder diffraction method in the pressure range up to 1.65 GPa and ambient temperature. Modification of the magnetic properties corresponding to the pressure-induced change of the crystal structure of Lu₂Fe₁₇ is analysed on the basis of local moment model in the mean field approximation. The experimentally observed suppression of FM state and stabilization of the non-collinear AFM state under high pressure in Lu₂Fe₁₇ can be explained qualitatively from model calculations. FM and non-collinear AFM states in Lu₂Fe₁₇ are found to be nearly degenerate at ambient pressure with the estimated difference between the total energy minima of  mRyd and the application of high pressure removes this degeneracy in the favor of non-collinear AFM state.