NMR Study of Coexistence of Ferro- and Antiferromagnetism in the Itinerant Electron System (Zr1-xNbx)Fe2. I

Pulsed NMR investigations of 93 Nb have been performed in the hexagonal Laves phase intermetallic compound (Zr 1- x Nb x )Fe 2 with 0.8 ≤ x ≤1.0. From the measurements of the Knight shift and the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time T 1 , it is demonstrated that NbFe 2 is a nearly ferromagnetic compound and (Zr 1- x Nb x )Fe 2 with x =0.95 and 0.85 are weakly ferromagnetic compounds having a Curie temperature of 30 K and 40 K, respectively, in contrast with the itinerant electron antiferromagnetism for 0.5 ≤ x ≤0.7. In the composition of x =0.8 where the antiferromagnetic order occurs below 85 K and ferromagnetic moment appears below 30 K, it was found out from T 1 measurement that the system is in a coexistent state of ferro- and antiferromagnetism.