Electronic structure and magnetic properties of selected lanthanide and actinide intermetallic Laves-phase alloys

The electronic structure and magnetic properties of some yttrium and uranium Laves-phase pseudobinary alloys with 3{ital d} elements have been calculated. The calculations were done by simulating the electronic structure of the alloy by that of an ordered compound with the same stoichiometry. In general a good agreement between the experimental and theoretical magnetic moment was found, indicating that the spurious long-range order of the calculations is of minor importance. A comparison between the present supercell cluster approach and the virtual-crystal approximation for the electronic structure and cohesive properties is presented for Y(Fe{sub 0.75}Co{sub 0.25}){sub 2} and U(Fe{sub 0.5}Ni{sub 0.5}){sub 2}.