Magnetocrystalline anisotropy and magnetic domain structure of ErFe11Ti and HoFe11Ti compounds

Abstract Tetragonal ThMn 12 -type single crystalline ErFe 11 Ti and HoFe 11 Ti samples have been investigated by magnetization measurements and by observations of the magnetic domain structure at various temperatures between 10 and 300 K. The magnetic structure of ErFe 11 Ti changes from room temperature “easy axis” ( c -axis) type to conical at spin-reorientation temperature T SR = 5 0 K . The HoFe 11 Ti has a metastable anisotropy energy minimum in the a -direction at T 4 0 K . It leads to a first-order magnetization process detected by magnetization measurements along the a -axis in this temperature region.