GROWTH AND SPIN REORIENTATION TRANSITION OF TB(FE,TI)(12) SINGLE-CRYSTAL

Single crystals of Tb(Fe,Ti)(12) have been grown by the Czochralski te chnique with cold crucible. Unknown solidifying property of Tb(Fe,Ti)( 12) system has been defined as the peritectic. It usually generates a complex of alpha-Fe and TiFe2 as non-host phases with a titanium conte nt of 25 at%. Another important solidification behavior, segregation o f titanium, is verified by chemical analysis. The segregation coeffici ent, k(eff) = 0.92, is obtained by calculation based on a normal solid ification model. Single crystalline samples of Tb(Fe,Ti)(12) compounds , without non-host phase impurities, and with precisely determined tit anium concentration, have been used to measure a series of spin reorie ntation transition temperature (T-SR). The disputed T-SR for TbFe11Ti has been confirmed as 290 K. It has been found that the T-SR is very s ensitive to the Ti concentration in the samples. The mechanism for T-S R being strongly affected by titanium and the possible reason for the uncertain value of T-SR in the previous works are also discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.