Remanent magnetization of amorphous La--Gd--Au alloys with high Gd content

Results of bulk magnetic measurements are reported for splat-cooled amorphous alloys (La/sub 100-x/Gd/sub x/)80Au20 over the concentrated region between the dilute (x less than or equal to 1 at.%) and the ferromagnetic range (x > 70 at.%). For x less than or equal to 40 at.% alloys, low field susceptibility maxima occur at temperatures proportional to x, and the reduced remanent magnetization M/sub rs/(T)/x depends only on the reduced temperature T/x. Our results are analyzed in the spirit of a phenomenological model of uncompensated magnetic clouds. The interplay of the RKKY interaction and of the anisotropic dipolar forces is sufficient to account for the order of magnitude of the remanent magnetization for x less than or equal to 40 alloys