Electronic Structure of Chromium Group Metals

Recent calculations of electron energy levels in body-centred cubic transition metals are used to estimate the position of the Fermi surface of non-magnetic chromium. It is shown that almost the whole of this surface is placed so that the introduction of an antiferromagnetic superlattice will lower the electron energy, so that such a structure should be expected to be stable at low temperatures, in accordance with observation. The complexity of the magnetic structure is not explained. The shape of the Fermi surfaces for the non-magnetic material is in accord with the properties of molybdenum and tungsten.