%0 journal article
%@ 0021-8898
%A Szary, P., Kaiser, D., Bick, J.-P., Lott, D., Heinemann, A., Dewhurst, C., Birringer, R., Michels, A.

%D 2016
%J Journal of Applied Crystallography

%P 533-538 
%R doi:10.1107/S1600576716001898
%T Magnetic field-dependent spin structures of nanocrystalline holmium
%U https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576716001898
 
%X The results are reported of magnetic field-dependent neutron diffraction experiments on polycrystalline inert-gas condensed holmium with a nanometre crystallite size (D = 33 nm). At T = 50 K, no evidence is found for the existence of helifan(3/2) or helifan(2) structures for the nanocrystalline sample, in contrast with results reported in the literature for the single crystal. Instead, when the applied field H is increased, the helix pattern transforms progressively, most likely into a fan structure. It is the component of H which acts on the basal-plane spins of a given nanocrystallite that drives the disappearance of the helix; for nanocrystalline Ho, this field is about 1.3 T, and it is related to a characteristic kink in the virgin magnetization curve. For a coarse-grained Ho sample, concomitant with the destruction of the helix phase, the emergence of an unusual angular anisotropy (streak pattern) and the appearance of novel spin structures are observed.