Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

A ferromagnet having no net magnetic moment

Nature volume 401, pages 148–150 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

Coupling between the spins (magnetic moments) of assemblies of ions can lead to ordered magnetic systems—classified as ferromagnetic, antiferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic and so forth, depending on the nature of the ordering1. A simple picture of the coupling and ordering is usually adequate for describing properties of these systems, such as the magnitude and thermal variation of the magnetization. Here we describe a system whose magnetic behaviour appears counterintuitive on the basis of this picture. The materials in question are based on the ferromagnetic compound, SmAl2, in which some of the magnetic samarium ions, Sm3+, have been substituted with other rare-earth elements. The resulting system exhibits the seemingly incompatible properties of large spin polarization but no bulk magnetization: this state occurs at a specific temperature, when the two components of the magnetization (the electron's spin and its orbital motion) exactly compensate for one another. This property should be generic to ferromagnets containing trivalent samarium ions, and may find potential application in, for example, spin-resolving devices for charged particles.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Diagrams of moment alignments.
Figure 2: Magnetic properties plotted against substituent concentration.
Figure 3: Magnetization versus temperature curves.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chikazumi,S. Physics of Ferromagnetism. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1997).

  2. Van Vleck,J. H. The Theory of Electric and Magnetic Susceptibilities, Sec. 59 (Oxford University Press, 1932).

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Adachi,H., Ino,H. & Miwa,H. Effect of conduction–electron polarization on the magnetism of hcp samarium metal. Phys. Rev. B 56, 349–354 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Adachi,H., Ino,H. & Miwa,H. Separation of the 4f-spin, 4f-orbital and conduction–electron magnetization from exotic thermomagnetic behavior of ferromagnetic Sm intermetallics. Phys. Rev. B 59, 11445–11449 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Legvold,S. et al. Magnetic properties of gadolinium-rich alloys. Phys. Rev. B 16, 4986–4989 (1977).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stewart,A. M. The ordered moment of metallic samarium materials. Phys. Status Solidi B 52, K1–K4 (1972).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Koehler,W. C. & Moon,R. M. Magnetic structures of samarium. Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 1468–1472 (1972).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Givord,D., Morin,P. & Schmitt,D. Unusual form factor in SmZn. Phys. Lett. A 73, 221–223 (1979).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Adachi,H. et al. Evidence for positive polarity of the spin moment in hcp Sm determined from a magnetic Compton-scattering experiment. Phys. Rev. B 56, R5744–R5746 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Williams,H. J., Wernick,J. H., Nesbitt,E. A. & Sherwood,R. C. Magnetic properties of rare earth aluminum compounds with MgCu2 structure. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 17 (suppl. B-I), 91–95 (1962).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Grover,A. K., Malik,S. K., Vijayaraghavan,R. & Shimizu,K. Hyperfine fields in Sm1-xGdxAl2 alloys—Microscopic evidence for ferromagnetic coupling between rare earth spins. J. Appl. Phys. 50, 7501–7503 (1979).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank H. Miwa, K. Kimura, S. Shin, A. Kakizaki and H. Kawata for discussions. T. Yatsu helped to prepare the samples. Magnetic measurements were made at the Cryogenic Center of the University of Tokyo. This work was partially supported by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science, a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113, Japan

    H. Adachi & H. Ino

  2. Institute of Materials Structure Science, KEK, Tsukuba, 305, Ibaraki, Japan

    H. Adachi

  3. College of Engineering, Hosei University, Koganei, 184, Tokyo, Japan

    H. Ino

Authors
  1. H. Adachi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. H. Ino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Adachi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Adachi, H., Ino, H. A ferromagnet having no net magnetic moment. Nature 401, 148–150 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/43634

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/43634

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing