ABSORPTION-SPECTRUM AND ZERO-FIELD SPLITTING OF Y3FE5O12

The assignment of the absorption spectrum of Y3Fe5O12 (YIG) made by Scott et al. [Phys. Rev. B 10, 971 (1974)] is shown to be incorrect and a new one is made by diagonalizing the complete cubic crystal-field matrices for d5 ions, involving spin-orbit interaction, given by Zhou et al. [Phys. Rev. B 44, 7499 (1991)]. The Racah parameters B and C, the crystal-field parameter Dq, and the spin-orbit coupling coefficient zeta are determined (in units of cm-1) as B = 783.3(530), C = 2928(3220), Dq = 1336(1300), zeta = 395 for octahedral Fe3+, and B = 606.1(705), C = 2696(2730), Dq = -1117.3(560), zeta = 335 for tetrahedral Fe3+, where the numerals in parentheses are the values adopted by Scott et al. Furthermore, the cubic zero-field splitting parameter a of Fe3+ in YIG is calculated to be a(oct) = 156 X 10(-4) cm-1 and a(tet) = 58.6 X 10(-4) cm-1. The value for a(oct) differs from the value of 189 X 10(-4) cm-1 found for Fe3+ in Y3Ga5O12:Fe3+. These results support speculations made by Geschwind [Phys. Rev. 121, 363 (1961)].