Magnetic structures and properties of new 1:1 MoB-type RCo0.6Ni0.4 and RCo0.5Ni0.5 (R = Tb, Dy, Ho): Structural transition induced by magnetic ordering

The magnetic properties, the crystal and the magnetic structures of the new 1: 1 RCo1−xNix phase formed by R = Tb, Dy and Ho, have been studied for x = 0.4 and 0.5 by means of physical property measurements, neutron and X-ray (from both laboratory and synchrotron) diffraction methods. These compounds crystallize in the tetragonal MoB structure type (tI16, I41/amd) at room temperature, with no ordered arrangement of Co/Ni atoms on the 8e Wyckoff site available for the transition element. Both the lattice parameters a and c (and unit cell volume, Vobs) decrease from Tb to Ho, with a and c following a linear and a quadratic trend, respectively. A magnetic phase transition is detected by heat capacity and magnetization data for TbCo0.6Ni0.4 at about 85 K. Similar transitions appear in DyCo0.6Ni0.4 and HoCo0.6Ni0.4 at 49 K and 27 K, respectively. These TC well follow the de Gennes factor along the lanthanide series. Neutron diffraction shows for the Tb- and Ho-compounds that strongly ferromagnetic structures characterized by a k = 0 magnetic propagation vector are formed on two different rare earth sublattices which are canted to each other. Only in the Tb-containing phases the magnetic transition leads to a symmetry reduction from tetragonal I41/amd to at least monoclinic I2/a. Magnetic symmetry analysis is used to argue that the presence of a magnetic moment component along the original tetragonal axis should be at the origin of this magneto-structural transition in the Tb-compounds with a possible further symmetry lowering.