Magnetization and magnetic excitations in HoAl2

The magnetization of HoAl₂ single crystals parallel and perpendicular to the applied field for three crystallographic directions has been measured between 4.2 and 300 K in fields up to 8 T. Further the spin wave excitations were investigated by inelastic neutron scattering at 5.2 K along <100>, <110> and <111> directions in reciprocal space. The results are interpreted consistently in terms of a cubic crystal field using a simple molecular field to calculate the magnetization and an isotropic Heisenberg exchange interaction to obtain the magnetic excitations.