Cobalt-related features of spectral and magnetic properties of RNi4Co (R=Ho, Er)

In this paper we investigate spectral and magnetic properties of RNi4Co (R=Ho, Er) intermetallics to reveal the features associated with the presence of Co substituting ion in comparison with the parent HoNi5 and ErNi5 compounds. Our ab initio LSDA+U calculations show that in the electronic structure Co states are strongly manifested near the Fermi energy for the case of Co in 2c position, while Co in 3g position results only in weak changes of the total DOS curve. Theoretical optical conductivity calculated assuming Co equally redistributed among 2c or 3g positions agrees well with the experimental optical conductivity. Cobalt ion in RNi4Co (R=Ho, Er) is characterized by magnetic moment of 1μB that increases exchange interaction in the 3d sublattice by several times that contributes to the growth of Curie temperature in comparison with the parent compounds.