Magnetic Compton study of a USe single crystal

Magnetic Compton scattering experiments on a USe single crystal have been performed at several temperatures around the Curie temperature of the specimen. The spin and the orbital moments of USe are deduced by combining the magnetic Compton scattering experiment with the magnetization measurement. Furthermore, the spin moment of USe is decomposed into a 5f electron component and a diffused component. We have obtained the spin moment of the 5f electron μS (5f) = -1.09 μB, the orbital moment of the 5f electron μL (5f) = 3.19 μB and the diffused moment μS (diff) -0.31 μB. From comparison with the previous results of UTe, it is concluded that the increase of the total magnetization from USe to UTe can mainly be ascribed to the decrease in magnitude of spin moment of the 5f electron with a slight increase of the orbital moment of the 5f electron. The results are also discussed from the points of view on the hybridization between U 5f and U 6d electrons and/or U 5f electrons and valence electrons of chalcogenide. (author)