Grain-size-dependent magnetic susceptibility of nanocrystalline terbium

This paper reports grain-size-dependent magnetic susceptibility data on nanocrystalline bulk Tb. We find that at small grain size Curie–Weiss behavior is not present for temperatures up to about 80 K above the transition temperature and that the helical antiferromagnetic phase is absent. Possible origins for the suppression of the helix phase in nanoscaled Tb are discussed in terms of internal magnetostatic fields and competing length scales (grain size versus wavelength of the helix phase).