STRUCTURE AND MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF ND(FEB)N FOR 2-LESS-THAN-N-LESS-THAN-8 - EVIDENCE OF EIGEN CURIE-TEMPERATURE MAGNETIC SUBLATTICES

The crystalline Nd(FeB), compounds, obtained by crystallizing the melt -quenched amorphous counterparts, form solid solutions of the NdCo4B4- type Structure and are commensurate for n < 4, whereas these are incom mensurate for n greater-than-or-equal-to 4, the incommensurability inc reasing with increasing n. The crystal structure of these materials ca n be described by the space group P4BAR, and is made up of two magneti cally weakly coupled, eigen Curie temperature magnetic sublattices, on e body centered tetragonal containing only Nd atoms (Curie temperature of the order of 14 to 18 K) and the other primitive tetragonal contai ning only Fe and B atoms (Curie temperature of the order of 938 K). Th e magnetic ordering of the Fe-B sublattice takes place after completio n of Fe-Fe links on increasing Nd vacancies with increasing n.