ITINERANT-ELECTRON ANTIFERROMAGNETISM IN THMN2

The hexagonal Laves-phase compound ThMn2 shows quite unusual magnetic behaviour that originates from itinerant antiferromagnetism in frustrated lattices. Thus, part of the Mn-atoms are nonmagnetic and the remainder forming a triangular magnetic configuration. We report results of local spin-density functional calculations solving the band-structure problem self-consistently by means of the ASW-method. The latter is suitably generalized to deal with non-collinear, spiral magnetic order characterized by an arbitrary wave-vector. Our results explain most of the properties of ThMn2 satisfactorily.