Low temperature magnetization and magnetostriction of single crystal TmFe2

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Abstract
The magnetization and magnetostriction of single crystal TmFe2 were measured as a function of temperature from 4 K to 300 K. TmFe2, because of its highly anisotropic 4f charge distribution, displays a huge magnetocrystalline anisotropy (K1) and magnetostriction (λ111) at cryogenic temperatures in spite of the high cubic symmetry of the C15 lattice and the tetrahedral symmetry of the Tm3+ site. The anisotropy spans the range from −5.3×105 erg/cm3 at room temperature to the extrapolated value of −5×108 erg/cm3 at 0 K. The saturated magnetic moment was found to be 74 emu/g, which is substantially larger than previous polycrystalline results. Magnetostriction measurements are consistent with ‖λ111‖≫‖λ100‖, and yield a saturation value of λ111(0) =−3520×10−6, which is appreciably larger than that previously reported. The rapid fall of the Tm3+ sublattice moment with temperature results in a rather low value of λ111=−210×10−6 at 300 K. The temperature dependence of λ111 closely follows single‐ion magnetoelastic theory.