Enhanced exchange in the itinerant ferromagnet UFe2

¹ European Commission, Joint Research Center, Institute for Transuranium Elements Postfach 2340, D-76125 Karlsruhe, Germany
² Département de Recherche Fondamentale sur la Matière Condensée, SPSMS/MDN CEA-Grenoble, F-38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
³ Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory - Long Island, NY 11973, USA
⁴ Dipartimento di Scienze dei Materiali e della Terra, Università di Ancona, and Istituto Nazionale Fisica della Materia - Via Brecce Bianche, I-60131 Ancona, Italy
⁵ Physics Department, Risø National Laboratory - DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
⁶ Institut Laue-Langevin - 156 X, F-38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
⁷ Université J. Fourier - F-38000 Grenoble, France

Received: 5 January 1996
Accepted: 25 March 1996

Abstract

Neutron inelastic-scattering experiments on the itinerant ferromagnet have shown that the strong hybridization between the U  and Fe  electrons results in a number of major changes compared to the physics of the isostructural , and Er) compounds. We have observed that the Fe-Fe exchange interaction in this compound is actually greater at low temperature than it is in pure iron. This situation is not found in the compounds. Excitations involving the U moments are heavily damped. We conclude with remarks on the possibility of synthesizing compounds with high Curie temperatures containing uranium.