Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in the Highly Anisotropic Rare EARTH-COBALT(5) Compounds.

The NMR spectra of magnetic materials containing domain walls and having a large anisotropy in the hyperfine field show two NMR peaks arising from a single site; one peak arising from nuclei located at the domain-wall-centre and the other peak arising from nuclei located at the domain -wall-edge. The identification of the origin of the observed peaks therefore gives a simple measurement of the total anisotropy in the hyperfine field. Techniques have been developed to identify the nature of the various peaks observed in the Co('59) NMR resonances in the RCo(,5) compounds. The modulation of the spin echo decay envelope by an external a.c. field has been observed. An enhancement of the external longitudinal modulating field resulting from the anisotropy in the hyperfine field has been identified. This is analogous to the enhancement of a transverse r.f. field by the isotropic hyperfine field which is characteristic of NMR in ferromagnetic materials. The observation of quadrupole splitting effects has been correlated to the rate of change of the hyperfine field in the domain wall as measured by the modulation experiment. The orbital contribution to the anisotropy in the hyperfine field consists of two contributions; one arising from the anisotropy in the crystal field and the other from an anisotropy in the spin-orbit interaction. A phenomenological model is presented which can consistently account for the data available on the anisotropy in the hyperfine field, the anisotropy in the magnetization and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The correlation between the anisotropy in the hyperfine field and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy represents an interesting new procedure for the study of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy and would therefore be of particular use in the fabrication of improved permanent magnetic materials.