Abstract
The Mossbauer effect in dysprosium 161 has been used to study crystal field quenching of the Dy magnetic moment in the Laves compounds (Dy1-xHox)Ni2 and (Dy1-xYx)Al2, via the measured quadrupole hyperfine parameter P. Very little change in the quenching of the 4f shell was observed in the (Dy1-xHox)Ni2 series and it is argued that this is a natural consequence of a large B4O40 term in the crystal field Hamiltonian. Rather more quenching occurs in the (Dy1-xYx)Al2 series, particularly when x approximately 0.6. Some estimates are given for the crystal field parameters B4 and B6 in the two sets of compounds.