CRYSTAL-FIELD EFFECTS ON THE MAGNETIC-SUSCEPTIBILITY OF RARE-EARTH TELLURIUM OXIDES

The magnetic susceptibilities of the rare earth tellurates RE2Te4O11 (where RE is a trivalent rare earth ion, Pr, Nd or Eu) have been measured, on polycrystalline powders, in the temperature range 4.2-300 K. In every case, an expression of the wavefunctions associated to each energy level in the corresponding 4f2, 4f3 and 4f6 configurations, previously obtained from spectroscopic measurements and crystal field effects analysis (considering approximate C2v and/or C(s) RE site symmetries), was used in the simulation of the magnetic susceptibilities and its evolution vs temperature. Satisfactory agreements between the experimental and calculated magnetic susceptibilities have been obtained.