TEMPERATURE AND FIELD-INDUCED SPIN REORIENTATIONS IN NDFE10-XCOXMO2 SINGLE-CRYSTALS

Single crystals of the NdFe10-xCoxMo2 alloy system (x=0,1,3,5,7,10) ha ve been prepared by the Czochralski technique and studied by x-ray and magnetometry techniques. All of the compounds in this series crystall ize in the tetragonal ThMn12-type structure. The single-crystal data s upport the previous findings on polycrystalline samples, namely, that (1) with increasing Co content, the easy direction of magnetization at 300 K appears to deviate from the c axis for x less than or equal to 3, and becomes axial for x greater than or equal to 5; (2) temperature -induced spin reorientations are observed for x<3; and (3) for n great er than or equal to 5, no temperature induced but field-induced spin r eorientations are observed. Single-crystal data also clarify the anoma lies observed in the temperature-dependent magnetization data an polyc rystalline samples. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.