Mössbauer study of rare-earth intermetallic compounds R₃T₂₉Si₄B₁₀

A ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer study has been conducted on the ⁵⁷Fe doped novel rare-earth intermetallic compounds R₃T₂₉Si₄B₁₀ (R = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and Lu, T = Ni, Co). The ⁵⁷Fe site assignment has been investigated by ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy combined with thermodynamic analysis and crystal field estimation. The investigation demonstrated that ⁵⁷Fe atoms preferentially occupy the 2c crystallographic site with m2 local symmetry in the R₃T₂₉Si₄B₁₀ compounds. Sequentially, the 8j1, 8j2 and 8i2 crystallographic sites are the second preferentially occupied and 8i3 and 16 K sites are the third preferential occupancy group of iron atoms. The magnetic hyperfine interaction at 4.2 K demonstrates the effect of a spin-induced Co magnetic moment.