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  Vilao, R.C.; Curado, M.A.; Alberto, H.V.; Gil, J.M.; Paixao, J.A.; Lord, J.S.; Weidinger, Alois: Paramagnetic rare-earth oxide Nd₂O₃ investigated by muon spin spectroscopy. Physical Review B 100 (2019), p. 205203/1-7

10.1103/PhysRevB.100.205203
Open Access Version

Abstract:
In the context of a systematic study of oxide materials with the muon spin spectroscopy (μSR) technique, we report here on an investigation of paramagnetic Nd2O3. The question was whether the magnetism of Nd3+ has an influence on the observed signals. In Nd2O3, as in the other oxides, a weakly paramagnetic component is observed besides the pure diamagnetic fraction. The paramagnetic part is assigned to a transient state formed between the initial atomic and the final bound muonium configuration. In addition, a fast relaxing signal (λ ∼ 7 μs−1) with 10% to 20% fraction is seen in longitudinal field. Contrary to this general behavior of the oxide materials, in the present magnetic compound, a resonancelike structure is seen in the temperature range around 40 K.We assign it tentatively to a dynamical process related to the population of the first excited Kramers doublet of the Nd3+ ion at 2.6 meV.