Competition of two-ion and single-ion anisotropy in rare-earth systems: Large anisotropy example of Tb₅Ge₃

The standard model of rare-earth magnetism assumes that magnetic anisotropy is mainly caused by single-ion effects. The importance of two-ion anisotropy is still disputed. For a number of materials this two-ion anisotropy is in the same order of magnitude and strongly influences the magnetic properties. Single crystalline Tb₅Ge₃ has a high moment and low symmetry and, because of this, a large anisotropy is expected. In the present study the influence of the two-ion interaction was investigated. Magnetization and magnetostriction were measured in high magnetic fields up to 60 T. The magnetic phase diagram constructed for the main crystallographic directions shows antiferromagnetism in zero field and a number of magnetic phases at higher fields. The exchange interaction was evaluated based on a model calculation of these phase diagrams. We conclude that a huge anisotropy in the two-ion interaction is present, which overwhelms the single-ion effects.