Interplay of crystalline and magnetic structures in TbxTm1−x system

Abstract A set of single crystal Tb x Tm 1− x rare-earth alloys was examined by X-ray diffraction. The temperature dependencies of the HCP lattice parameters c and a in the range 30–300 K were obtained and the results were compared to data derived from the temperature dependencies of the magnetic structures in the same samples. The characteristic square-root dependence of the magnetic wave vector on the c / a ratio at the Neel temperature was observed. This result is consistent with the “nesting” hypothesis that links the formation of the long-periodic magnetic structures in the heavy rare-earth metals to the shape of the Fermi surface.