Exploration of crystal field level scheme of Er2Zr2O7 and Ho2Zr2O7

The structural, magnetic, and thermodynamic properties of Kramers and non-Kramers ion-based Er2Zr2O7 and Ho2Zr2O7 systems were studied by X-ray, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements. The structural studies confirm the formation of chemically disordered phases in both compounds.The reduced value of saturation magnetization to half of the free ion value shows strong Ising anisotropy in Ho2Zr2O7. Besides, that there is no magnetic ordering, the heat capacity shows a correlation peak at 1 K, and Ho2Zr2O7 exhibits a finite residual entropy. The true ground state and origin of the unusual magnetic states are still unclear. Also, the details of the crystal field excitations on these materials have not been explored yet. We propose to carry out inelastic neutron scattering measurements of CEF excitations on these less explored materials at high count-rate chopper spectrometer Merlin. We have prepared at least 5 g of powder for this measurement. We request 2 days of measurement time.