Das kritische magnetische Verhalten von EuO

Abstract

Mössbauer effect and magnetization measurements were employed in order to study the static and especially the dynamic magnetic properties of the nearly Heisenberg ferromagnet EuO near its Curie temperature,T _c=69.2 °K. The critical exponent β of the spontaneous magnetization was determined to be β=0.34±0.02. It was shown that critical slowing down of spin fluctuations takes place nearT _c with spin relaxation times between 7×10⁻¹¹ sec (T=1.01T _c) and 1.5×10⁻¹ sec (T=1.03T _c). The experimental values of the relaxation time were found to be in satisfactory agreement with theoretically computed ones. Just belowT _c the Mössbauer spectra exhibit relaxation effects, which are characteristic for the occurence of critical super-paramagnetism. Investigations of several samples indicated quantitatively, that critical superparamagnetism has its origin in the non ideal composition of the real crystal.