Absolute Saturation Magnetization of Nickel-Antimony and Nickel-Tantalum Alloys

The absolute saturation magnetic moment per atom ($M$) was measured as a function of the atomic composition ($\tau$) for nickel-antimony and nickel-tantalum solid solutions. Fields up to 40,000 gauss and temperatures down to 77.2°K were used. The initial slope $\frac{\mathrm{dM}}{d\tau }$ was found to be -3.6 and -5.7 Bohr magnetons per substituted atom for Ni-Sb and Ni-Ta, respectively. The disagreement between the former result and the data of Sadron and of Marian is discussed in conjunction with "superposed paramagnetism." A complete summary of previous data on ferromagnetic binary alloys shows the present results to be additional exceptions to a surprisingly large range of applicability of the energy band theory. The "anomalous" behavior of the iron alloys is briefly discussed.