Lattice and magnetic anisotropies in Uranium intermetallic compounds

Abstract

Examples of UNiAlD2.1 and UCoGe illustrate that the soft crystallographic direction coincides quite generally with the shortest U-U links in U intermetallics. Added to existing experimental evidence on U compounds it leads to a simple rule, that the easy magnetization direction and the soft crystallographic direction (in the sense of highest compressibility under hydrostatic pressure) must be mutually orthogonal.

Keywords

• magnetic anisotropy
• thermal expansion
• crystal structure
• uranium compounds