Anomalous shear ultrasonic attenuation peak at 95.5°K in holmium2

An anomalous attenuation peak at 95.5°K has been observed for shear ultrasonic waves transmitted along the c-axis of two holmium single crystals. The velocity change across this temperature is on the order of 10^?4. In the presence of an external magnetic field, the peak moves toward high temperatures for both H∥a and H∥c. A rotation of the field in the basal plane produces a two-fold symmetry pattern in the attenuation. A double peak structure centered at the c-plane has also been observed when the field is rotated away from the a-axis. A considerable fraction of the attenuation peak appears to go as sin² θ where θ is the angle between the shear wave polarization and the external field.