Isotope shift of the ferromagnetic transition temperature in itinerant ferromagnets

We present a theory of the isotope effect of the Curie temperature Tc in itinerant ferromagnets. The isotope effect in ferromagnets occurs via the electron-phonon vertex correction and the effective attractive interaction mediated by the electron-phonon interaction. The decrease of the Debye frequency increases the relative strength of the Coulomb interaction, which results in a positive isotope shift of Tc when the mass M of an atom increases. Following this picture, we evaluate the isotope effect of Tc by using the Stoner theory and a spin-fluctuation theory. When Tc is large enough as large as or more than 100 K, the isotope effect on Tc can be measurable. Recently, precise measurements on the oxygen isotope effect on Tc have been performed for itinerant ferromagnet SrRuO3 with Tc∼160K. A clear isotope effect has been observed with the positive shift of Tc∼1K by isotope substitution (O16→O18). This experimental result is consistent with our theory.