Statistical and Analytical Approaches to Finite Temperature Magnetic Properties of SmFe$_{12}$

Abstract

To investigate the magnetic properties of SmFe$_{12}$, we construct an effective spin model, where magnetic moments, crystal field (CF) parameters, and exchange fields at 0 K are determined by first principles. Finite temperature magnetic properties are investigated by using this model. We further develop an analytical method with strong mixing of states with different quantum number of angular momentum $J$ ($J$-mixing), which is caused by strong exchange field acting on spin component of 4$f$ electrons. Comparing our analytical results with those calculated by Boltzmann statistics, we clarify that the previous analytical studies for Sm transition metal compounds over-estimate the $J$-mixing effects. The present method enables us to make quantitative analysis of temperature dependence of magnetic anisotropy (MA) with high-reliability. The analytical method with model approximations reveals that the $J$-mixing caused by exchange field increases spin angular momentum, which enhances the absolute value of orbital angular momentum and MA constants via spin-orbit interaction. It is also clarified that these J-mixing effects remain even above room temperature. Magnetization of SmFe$_{12}$ shows peculiar field dependence known as first-order magnetization process (FOMP), where the magnetization shows an abrupt change at certain magnetic field. The result of the analysis shows that the origin of FOMP is attributed to competitive MA constants between positive $K_1$ and negative $K_2$. The sign of $K_{1(2)}$ appears due to an increase in CF potential denoted by the parameter $A_2^0\langle r^2\rangle$ ($A_4^0\langle r^4\rangle$) caused by hybridization between 3$d$-electrons of Fe on 8$i$ (8$j$) site and 5$d$ and 6$p$ valence electrons on Sm site. It is verified that the requirement for the appearance of FOMP is given as $-K_2<K_1<-6K_2$.