Study of electron spin dynamics in grain aligned LaCoPO: an itinerant ferromagnet

139La NMR study was performed in grain aligned (c//Ho)sample of LaCoPO and polycrystalline LaFePO. Knight shift is isotropic and temperature independent in LaFePO. It is strongly temperature dependent and anisotropic in LaCoPO. The spin - lattice relaxation rate in LaCoPO clearly reveals the existence of 3D spin fluctuations both in the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic state over and above the dominant 2D spin fluctuations in the paramagnetic state, observed earlier from 31P NMR measurements in the same oriented sample. The spin fluctuation parameters in LaCoPO determined from 139La NMR relaxation and magnetization data, using the self consistent renormalization (SCR) theory, are in close agreement and follow the universal Rhodes - Wohlfarth curve. (author)