Effect of Orbital Degeneracy on Magnetoelastic Energy

Because of the configurational instability of an orbitally degenerate system, ferrimagnetic crystals containing orbitally degenerate cations should exhibit large magnetostriction. The effect of orbital degeneracy of Co²⁺ on magnetostriction in cobalt‐iron ferrite is calculated by means of perturbation theory. A value of ${\text{1.4×10}}^3\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\text{−1}}$ for trigonal crystal field splitting of Co²⁺ is inferred by comparing calculated results with experimental data.