Magnetic measurements and crystal field investigation on single crystals of Er(CF3SO3)3·9H2O

Single crystals of erbium tri-fluoromethanesulfonate (ErTFMS) were prepared from the slow evaporation of the aqueous solution. The principal magnetic susceptibilities perpendicular to the c-axis of the hexagonal crystal was measured down to 13 K. Principal magnetic anisotropy was also measured from 300 K down to 80 K which provides principal susceptibility parallel to the c-axis down to 80 K. A very good theoretical simulation of the thermal variation of principal magnetic susceptibilities of ErTFMS has been obtained with a crystal field (CF) of C3h site symmetry, in which J-mixed eigenvectors and intermediate coupling effects have been used. No ordering effects were noticed down to the lowest temperature (13 K) attained, indicating the inter-ionic interaction to be of predominantly dipolar type. The g-values are found to be g∣∣=8.86 and g⊥=1.62, respectively. The Schottky anomaly in the electronic heat capacity at about 80 K has been computed from the Stark pattern. The thermal behavior of quadrupole splitting and hyperfine heat capacity were calculated from the CF analysis.