Deviation from the stoichiometric composition of single-crystal 'Er2Co17'

The deviation from the stoichiometric composition of single-crystal 'Er2Co17' has been determined by theoretical analysis. It is found that the composition of this single-crystal 'Er2Co17' is rich in cobalt, and its real composition is suggested to be Er2-deltaCo17+2 delta (delta = 0.14) on the basis of a comparison of calculations based on the single-ion model with a series of experiments. The values of the Er-Co exchange field H-ex and the crystalline-electric-field (CEF) parameters A(n)(m) at the rare-earth (R) site in the 'Er2Co17' compound are also evaluated at the same time. The experiments provide the following data: the temperature dependence of the spontaneous magnetization of the compounds and the normalized magnetic moment of the Er ion, the magnetization curves dong the crystallographic axes at 4.2 K and 200 K, and the temperature dependence of the magnetization along the crystallographic axes in a field of 4 T.