Influence of Multiplet Splittings in High-Polarity States on Magnetism in Transition Metals

From an Auger study of dilute Ni alloys with electropositive metals it is concluded that multiplet splitting of the Ni $d^8$ configuration is important. It is shown that the $d^8$ (${}_{}{}^3{}_{}{}^{}F$) state is of sufficiently low energy to be strongly mixed in the Ni ground-state wave function whereas the other, mainly singlet, states are all well removed to higher energy. The relevance of multiplet splittings to polarity fluctuations and magnetism in transition metals and their alloys is discussed.