Dimensionality crossover upon magnetic saturation in Fe, Ni and Co

The magnetic saturation process of iron, nickel and cobalt single-crystal spheres is studied using neutron scattering in a vertical magnetic field. It is observed that upon magnetic saturation, the scattering intensities decrease instead of increasing. This indicates a decreasing coherent scattering with field. The spin precession around the field axis therefore can be assumed to be incoherent along directions transverse to the field. Comparison of the temperature dependence of the spontaneous magnetization measured by zero field NMR on the one hand and by the macroscopic magnetization on the other hand shows that Fe, Ni and Co are three-dimensional (3D) in the zero field ground state but one dimensional (1D) in the magnetically saturated state. The observed decrease in neutron scattering intensity is consistent with this conclusion. The change in dimensionality is associated with a crossover. Our neutron scattering study shows that the crossover occurs at a field that is smaller than the demagnetization field. The dimensionality crossover, therefore, is driven not by the field but by the associated forced magnetostriction.