Thermal expansion anomalies of R2Fe14B and R 2Fe17Cx (x = 0, 2) (R = Y, Nd, Gd, Tb, Er) stoichiometric compounds are studied with high-energy synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction using Debye-Scherrer geometry in temperature range 10K to 1000K. Large spontaneous magnetostriction up to their Curie temperatures (Tc) is observed. The a-axes show relatively larger invar effects than c-axes in the R 2Fe14B compounds whereas the R2Fe17C x show the contrary anisotropies. The iron sub-lattice is shown to dominate the spontaneous magnetostriction of the compounds. The contribution of the rare earth sublattice is roughly proportional to the spin magnetic moment of the rare earth in the R2Fe14B compounds but in R 2Fe17Cx, the rare earth sub-lattice contribution appears more likely to be dominated by the local bonding. The calculation of spontaneous magnetostrain of bonds shows that the bonds associated with Fe(j2) sites in R2Fe14B and the dumbbell sites in R 2Fe17Cx have larger values, which is strongly related to their largest magnetic moment and Wigner-Seitz atomic cell volume. The roles of the carbon atoms in increasing the Curie temperatures of the R2Fe17 compounds are attributed to the increased separation of Fe hexagons. The R2Fe17 and R2Fe 14B phases with magnetic rare earth ions also show anisotropies of thermal expansion above Tc. For R2Fe17 and R 2Fe14B the alphaa/alphac > 1 whereas the anisotropy is reversed with the interstitial carbon in R2Fe 17. The average bond magnetostrain is shown to be a possible predictor of the magnetic moment of Fe sites in the compounds. Both of the theoretical and phenomenological models on spontaneous magnetostriction are discussed and a Landau model on the spontaneous magnetostriction is proposed.
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