MAGNETIZATION IN STRONG FIELDS AND APPROACH TO ABSOLUTE SATURATION OF NEODYMIUM AND DYSPROSIUM

Magnetic moments were measured directly by a simple ballistic motion method on neodymium and dysprosiunm. For neodymium, difficult to saturate, the measurements were made in magnctic fields up to 70,000 gauss and at temperatures in the liquid helium region. At 1.3 K and 70,000 gauss the measured moment is 1.5 Bohr magnetons per atom of neodymium and the extrapolation yields not more than 1.65 Bohr magnetons per atom as compared with 3.3 Bohr magnetons per atom calculated from quantum numbers. The small remanence increases between 4.2 and 1.3 K . The absolute moment measured for dysprosium at 1.3 K and 78,000 gauss is 7.6 Bohr magnetons per atom. The remanent moment increases from 0.04 Bohr magneton per atom at 140 K to 0.67 Bohr magneton per atoni at 1.3 K. (auth)