The Magnetism of Rare-Earth Metals

In the last two decades a revolutionary improvement has taken place in our understanding of the magnetic behavior of solids. A major contribution to this development has been made with the intense beams of neutrons now available from research reactors. Neutrons interact with magnetic systems through their magnetic moments; the energies, momenta and wavelengths of thermal neutrons correspond with those characteristic of solids.

The changes in momentum and energy when a neutron is magnetically scattered in a solid therefore are readily measured, yielding information on magnetic structures and excitations that can not be obtained by other means. Although they are chemically similar, these fifteen elements—one sixth of the periodic table—exhibit a broad spectrum of unusual magnetic properties that may be custom controlled by alloying.