The magnetic susceptibilities of palladium and palladium-rhodium alloys from 1.85 to 293 °K

Abstract

Rapid increases in the susceptibilities of palladium-rich alloys have been observed at low temperatures. From the difference in susceptibilities of two specimens of nominally pure palladium, these increases appear to be due to impurities and are consistent with the assumption that the impurities give rise to a form of super paramagnetism with carriers of moments of the order of 9 Bohr magnetons. This forms the basis for the correction of the measured susceptibilities of the alloys for impurity contribution and the extrapolation of the susceptibility values to 0 °K. By combining these results with the results of measurements of the electronic contribution to the specific heat, the variation of Stoner’s exchange parameter θ' with composition is deduced. The form of this experimentally deduced variation suggests that the previously reported peak in the density of states curve for palladium lies closer to the Fermi level for palladium than hitherto supposed.