398 Ch.

7 Itinerant Electron Magnetism

10.0
G
M
92

1
brn
5.0

2.5

0 125 250 375 K2 500

Figure 7.9: The measured temperature dependence of the magnetization of ZrZnz

(circles), and the mean field prediction (7.101) (line) (after [311],reproduced in [442]).

high among 5d systems; in fact, it is about the same as the susceptibility

of the nearly ferromagnetic 4d element Pd.
So far the successes of Stoner theory; now to the failures. We find
that, according to (7.124), in the paramagnetic phase the inverse sus-
ceptibility should have a quadratic temperature dependence. As far as
we know, such a behaviour is never observed. In fact, the susceptibil-
ity of ZrZn2 is better approximated by a Curie-Weiss law in the range
Tc 5 T 5 3Tc.
The finding that the paramagnetic susceptibility of a supposedly
itinerant magnet can be fitted by a Curie-Weiss law, is most puzzling.
Sure enough, we have convinced ourselves (Problem 7.1) that at high
enough temperatures, all band electron spin susceptibilities should fol-

-
low a Curie-Weiss law. But that holds at T TF;it cannot conceivably
N

explain the behaviour of ZrZn2 at T 30K! This is a major problem

and we had better admit it at once that it cannot be tackled within any
of the simple theories which we review here. For more sophisticated
approaches, see [290] and [374].
It should be mentioned that not all ferromagnets formed of individ-
ually non-magnetic elements are necessarily weak. The ordered alloy
VAu4 is reported to have the quite respectable T = 0 moment l p ~ N

per formula unit [442].