Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 103, Issue 46, Pages 17179-17183Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608552103
Keywords
disorder; magnetism; radiation damage
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Plutonium possesses the most complicated phase diagram in the periodic table, driven by the complexities of overlapping 5f electron orbitals. Despite the importance of the 5f electrons in defining the structure and physical properties, there is no experimental evidence that these electrons localize to form magnetic moments in pure Pu. Instead, a large temperature-independent Pauli susceptibility indicates that they form narrow conduction bands. Radiation damage from the a-particle decay of Flu creates numerous defects in the crystal structure, which produce a significant temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility, chi(T), in both alpha-Pu and delta-Pu (stabilized by 4.3 atomic percent Ga). This effect can be removed by thermal annealing above room temperature. By contrast, below 35 K the radiation damage is frozen in place, permitting the evolution in chi(T) with increasing damage to be studied systematically. This result leads to a two-component model consisting of a Curie-Weiss term and a short-ranged interaction term consistent with disorder-induced local moment models. Thus, it is shown that self-damage creates localized magnetic moments in previously nonmagnetic plutonium.
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