A comparison of random anisotropy and spin glass properties in several amorphous rare-earth alloys

We report magnetic measurements on the amorphous (a) alloys a-Dy 0.52Cu0.48, a-Gd0.52Ag0.48, and a-Gd0.37 Al0.63. We compare the first two alloys to a recent theory for random anisotropy systems and conclude that both alloys display some but not all aspects of the theory. We also show that their magnetic properties contrast with those of the spin glass a-Gd0.37Al 0.63.