Study of 57Fe Mossbauer effect in RFe2Zn20 ( R = Lu, Yb, Gd)

Abstract

We report measurements of 57Fe Mossbauer spectra for RFe2Zn20 ( R = Lu, Yb, Gd) from ~ 4.5 K to room temperature. The obtained isomer shift values are very similar for all three compounds, their temperature dependence was analyzed within the Debye model and resulted in an estimate of the Debye temperatures of 450-500 K. The values of quadrupole splitting at room temperature change with the cubic lattice constant a in a linear fashion. For GdFe2Zn20, ferromagnetic order is seen as an appearance of a sextet in the spectra. The 57Fe site hyperfine field for T = 0 was evaluated to be ~ 2.4 T.