PRESSURE EFFECT ON MAGNETIC-PROPERTIES OF UGA3

The magnetic susceptibility, chi, of the itinerant antiferromagnetic c ompound UGa3 was studied under pressure up to 2 kbar in the temperatur e range 64-300 K. The measured pressure derivative of the Neel tempera ture is found to be dT(N)/dP = -1.1 K/kbar. In order to analyze the ex perimental magnetovolume effect values, d ln chi/d lnV, the volume dep endent electronic structure of UGa3 has been calculated ab initio in a paramagnetic phase by employing a relativistic full-potential linear muffin tin orbital method and including an external magnetic field sel f-consistently. The calculations revealed a predominance of itinerant uranium f-states at the Fermi energy, as well as a large orbital contr ibution to chi.