Magnetic structures and magnetic susceptibilities of terbium oxysulfide and oxyselenide

For the two isomorphous compounds Tb₂O₂S and Tb₂O₂Se, the magnetic susceptibility measurements on powder samples show an antiferromagnetic ordering with Néel temperatures of about 7.7 and 7K respectively. Differing in this respect from the other rare earth oxyselenides, the magnetic anisotropy of Tb₂O₂Se at low temperature is weaker than that of Tb₂O₂S.We also determine the magnetic structures of these two compounds by neutron diffraction experiments at 1.5K. The magnetic cell is orthohexagonal and doubled along the c-axis; the magnetic moments make an angle, with the c-axis, of 47 ± 10° for Tb₂O₂S and 30 ± 10° for Tb₂O₂Se and the moment values at 1.5K are 8.14 ± 0.2μ_B and 6.5 ± 0.2μ_B, respectively.It is rather exceptional that in a rare earth uniaxial compound the magnetic moment makes an angle with the c-axis. However we interpret this situation by the fact that several levels exist very near to the ground state. The crystal field calculations are in good agreement with the experimental results.