Neutron spectroscopic study of crystal-field excitations and the effect of the crystal field on dipolar magnetism in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">F</mml:mi><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>(<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mtext>Gd</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:math>, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb)
Neutron spectroscopic study of crystal-field excitations and the effect of the crystal field on dipolar magnetism in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">F</mml:mi><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math>(<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>R</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mtext>Gd</mml:mtext></mml:mrow></mml:math>, Ho, Er, Tm, and Yb)
We present a systematic study of the crystal field interactions in the Li$R$F$_4$, $R$ = Gd, Ho, Er, Tm and Yb, family of rare-earth magnets. Using detailed inelastic neutron scattering measurements we have been able to quantify the transition energies and wavefunctions for each system. This allows us to quantitatively …