We explain a profound complexity of magnetic interactions of some technologically relevant gadolinium intermetallics using an ab-initio electronic structure theory which includes disordered local moments and strong f-electron correlations. The theory correctly finds GdZn and GdCd to be simple ferromagnets and predicts a remarkably large increase of Curie temperature with pressure of +1.5 K kbar−1 for GdCd confirmed by our experimental measurements of +1.6 K kbar−1. Moreover we find the origin of a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic competition in GdMg manifested by non-collinear, canted magnetic order at low temperatures. Replacing 35\% of the Mg atoms with Zn removes this transition in excellent agreement with longstanding experimental data.
@article{arxiv.1508.04297,
title = {Complex magnetism of lanthanide intermetallics unravelled},
author = {L. Petit and D. Paudyal and Y. Mudryk and K. A. Gschneidner and V. K. Pecharsky and M. Lueders and Z. Szotek and R. Banerjee and J. B. Staunton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.04297},
year = {2015}
}