High-pressure μSR studies on elemental rare earth metals

Muon-spin rotation data on single-crystalline samples of the heavy rare-earth metals Dy and Ho in their antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic temperature regimes (20 K < T < T-N) have been obtained as function of hydrostatic external pressure up to 0.9 GPa using the He-gas high-pressure system installed at the decay muon beam mu E1 at PSI. Due to the absence of pressure-dependent changes of the moment orientation (spin-turning) as observed in previous high-pressure measurement on ferromagnetic Gd, the pressure coefficients (partial derivative B-mu/partial derivative p)(Gamma) in Dy and Ho are comparatively small, but nevertheless temperature-dependent. The volume dependence of the contact field is extracted. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.