Correlation of57Fe hyperfine interactions with Fe-Fe distance in Laves phase compounds RFe2 (R=rare earth)

The⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer isomer shifts and magnetic hyperfine fields in Laves phase compounds RFe₂ (R=Pr, Nd and Sm) are studied with particular reference to the effect of the Fe–Fe interatomic distance on the hyperfine interactions. It is shown that the charge density at the Fe nuclei scales linearly with fractional volume change up to 20%. The⁵⁷Fe hyperfine field corrected for the influence of rare-earth moment shows a systematic variation with the distance, which can be understood in terms of the Bethe-Slater curve arguments. The similarity of the atomic volume dependence of the⁵⁷Fe hyperfine interactions in Lves phase compounds to those in iron with close-packed structure is emphasized.This paper is based on a paper presented at the 5th Int. Conf. on hyperfine interactions, Berlin, July 21–25, 1980.