Crystal field excitations in cuprate and boron carbide superconductors

Inelastic neutron scattering has been employed to study the crystal field interaction in cuprate and boron carbide superconductors. A modified version of the point charge model is presented, which allows a reasonable description of the measured spectra in these two systems. From the determination of the crystal field parameters, the calculated thermodynamic magnetic properties are compared with experimental results. In the cuprate superconductors, the variations of the observed energy spectra as a function of doping are related to the superconducting properties. (orig.)