Electronic relaxation in rare earth metals and alloys - A non-Kramers example: Tm3+

Electronic relaxation in rare earth materials has been a subject of considerable interest in recent years. Several metallic thulium compounds, Tm, TmAl, TmCu, and Tmsub(x)Ysub(1-x)Cu were studied using Moessbauer spectroscopy over the temperature range of 65 mK to T > T(Neel). All of the spectra can be well described by including electronic relaxation using the matrix formalism of L.L. Hirst. The general features of the spectra for all these materials are similar, even though Tm is hexagonal and shows a complex spin structure in neutron diffraction studies, TmAl is orthorhombic, and TmCu and Tmsub(x)Ysub(1-x)Cu are cubic