The temperature dependence of magnetic-field-induced transitions in the magnetisation of neodymium single crystals

Applied fields of up to 5 T in the b direction give anomalies in magnetisation curves, the number and character of which change with temperature. Only that at highest field ( approximately 3 T) in this range is visible above the temperature (8.3K) of the susceptibility maximum and up to 14K; the field for this is a maximum at about 8K, falling slightly at lower and higher temperatures. A second, more hysteretic and more temperature-dependent anomaly is seen below 8.3K, falling from 2.9 T there to 2.4 T at 4.2K. Two low-field transitions are visible below 7K, the lower and more hysteretic one dominating below approximately 5K; both rise in field (to approximately 0.8 and 1.0 T at 4.2K) with falling temperature. Some correlations can be made with other field-dependent properties. For fields along the c axis only one major effect is found-a regime of enhanced dM/dB around 0.9 T visible below 8.3K and becoming more marked on cooling to 4.2K.