MAGNETIC HYPERFINE FIELD AT DILUTED FE-57 IN VAPOR-QUENCHED HEAVY-RARE-EARTH FILMS

In this work, we combine vapor-quenching technique at low temperature (20 K) and in situ Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy at different temperatu res (7-300 K) to study out-of-equilibrium solubility and magnetic prop erties of Fe-57(5 at. %) in some magnetic heavy-rare-earth (RE) metals (RE=Dy, Ho, Er, and Tm). The spectra were fitted using the full Hamil tonian including electric quadrupole and magnetic interactions. Two ma gnetic components are observed in the 7 K Mossbauer spectra: one with a magnetic hyperfine field (B-hf) varying between 5.3(2) and 1.9(2) T, which has been attributed to Fe at a substitutional site, and the oth er one, with a smaller field (<2.1 T), which is assumed to be due to F e at an interstitial site. The behavior of B-hf for Fe at the substitu tional site in the different RE metals scales with the de Gennes facto r.