F. Albertini

Giant entropy change at the co-occurrence of structural and magnetic transitions in the Ni2.19Mn0.81Ga Heusler alloy

Abstract:We have studied the isothermal entropy change around a first-order structural transformation and in correspondence to the second-order Curie transition in the ferromagnetic Heusler alloy Ni2.15Mn0.85Ga. The results have been compared with those obtained for the composition Ni2.19Mn0.81Ga, in which the martensitic structural transformation and the magnetic transition occur simultaneously. With a magnetic field span from 0 to 1.6 T, the magnetic entropy change reaches the value of 20 J/kg K when transitions are co-occurring, while 5 J/kg K is found when the only structural transition occurs.

Strong coercivity reduction in perpendicular FePt∕Fe bilayers due to hard/soft coupling

We have prepared perpendicular hard/soft bilayers made of a 10nm L10-FePt layer, which has been epitaxially grown on MgO(100) and a Fe layer with thicknesses of 2 and 3.5nm. The control of the interface morphology allows to modify the magnetic regime at fixed Fe thickness (from rigid magnet to exchange-spring magnet), due to the nanoscale structure effect on the hard/soft coupling and to tailor the hysteresis loop characteristics. Despite the small thickness of the soft layer, the coercivity is strongly reduced compared to the hard layer value, indicating that high anisotropy perpendicular systems with moderate coercivity can be easily obtained.

Composition and temperature dependence of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy in Ni2+xMn1+yGa1+z (x+y+z=0) Heusler alloys

The composition dependence of magnetic and structural transformations, as well as the temperature and composition dependence of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, were studied in the martensitic Ni2+xMn1+yGa1+z (x+y+z=0) Heusler alloys. Moving away from the stoichiometric composition, a slight variation, a large reduction, and a marked enhancement, were, respectively, observed for the Curie temperature, the magnetic anisotropy, and the structural (martensitic–austenitic) transformation temperatures.

Magnetoelastic effects and magnetic anisotropy in Ni2MnGa polycrystals

Linear thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements under a magnetic field up to 20 kOe, applied parallel and perpendicular to the measuring direction and in the temperature range of 10–300 K, have been performed on a Ni2MnGa polycrystal. The effects of zero-field cooling and field cooling on both the self-strain (H=0) and the magnetic-field-induced strain (MFIS) have been studied. We have found that the MFIS strongly depends on whether a magnetic field was applied during the cooling process. The applied magnetic field facilitates the growth of specific orientation variants along the field direction as the sample is cooled down through martensitic transformation. However, the application of a field in the martensitic phase induces a negligible motion of twin boundaries. On this basis, the singular point detection technique performed on polycrystalline specimens results in being the easiest and most direct way by which to determine the anisotropy field in this class of materials. The temperature beh...

Reverse magnetostructural transformation in Co-doped NiMnGa multifunctional alloys

We studied the composition dependence of the structural and magnetic properties of Co-doped Ni–Mn–Ga alloys around the Mn-rich composition Ni50Mn30Ga20. By varying the Co and Mn content we have been able to tune the critical temperatures. In particular, in a suitable composition range, the Curie temperature of martensite is lower than Curie temperature of austenite and lower than martensitic transformation temperature, giving rise to a paramagnetic gap between magnetically ordered martensite and austenite and to the occurrence of a reverse magnetostructural transformation.

Structural, magnetic and anisotropic properties of Ni2MnGa melt-spun ribbons

Abstract The structural and magnetic characterisation of the melt-spun Ni 2 MnGa alloy is presented. The rapid solidification technique produces nanocrystalline ribbons with composition very close to the master alloy, which are single phase, chemically homogeneous and not brittle. The samples are highly textured with the easy magnetisation axis of the martensitic phase in the ribbon plane.

Large reversible entropy change at the inverse magnetocaloric effect in Ni-Co-Mn-Ga-In magnetic shape memory alloys

Calorimetry under magnetic field has been used to study the inverse magnetocaloric effect in Ni-Co-Mn-Ga-In magnetic shape memory alloys. It is shown that the energy dissipated during a complete transformation loop only represents a small fraction (5% to 7%) of the latent heat of the martensitic transition. It is found that the entropy values obtained from isofield temperature scans agree well with those obtained from isothermal magnetic field scans. The reproducibility of the magnetocaloric effect has been studied from isothermal measurements. Reproducible entropy values under field cycling have been found within a temperature interval bounded by the start temperature of the forward transition at zero field and the start temperature of the reverse transition under applied field. Large reversible entropy changes around 11 J/kg K have been found for fields up to 6 T.

Morphology evolution and magnetic properties improvement in FePt epitaxial films by in situ annealing after growth

This paper presents a detailed study of structure, morphology, and magnetic properties in FePt thin films epitaxially grown on MgO(100) at intermediate temperatures (≅380°C). It focuses on the effects obtained by in situ annealing the FePt films after deposition. We have demonstrated that the annealing allows one to complete the ordering, thus obtaining an epitaxial L10-FePt film with large perpendicular anisotropy (up to 3×107erg∕cm3) and high perpendicular squareness and remanence ratio (both higher than 0.85). At the same time, we have found a peculiar morphology evolution by increasing the annealing time: the interconnected mazelike grains evolve towards interconnected dotlike grains of reduced size (down to 10nm). Due to the interconnection at the grains basis, the increase in the film perpendicular coercivity with the annealing process is moderate (up to 4.1kOe), leading to an increasing anisotropy/coercivity ratio with the annealing time. As a further step towards the understanding of the propertie...

A magnetic and structural study of Mn, Co, and Ni substituted Fe3Ge2 hexagonal germanides

Structural (x-ray and neutron diffraction), Mossbauer, and magnetic investigations were performed in order to study Mn, Co, and Ni substituted Fe3.34Ge2 hexagonal germanides. From an x-ray diffraction analysis of Fe3.34Ge2 single crystal data Fe was found to enter exclusively 2a and 2d sites of the defective structure, while vacancies only occupy the 2d site in the congruent composition. It was also found that Ge atoms are slightly displaced from 2c site towards an adjacent vacancy in a 2d site. The preferential entrance of Mn, Co, and Ni was determined by neutron powder diffraction and Mossbauer data in the paramagnetic region. The complex Mossbauer spectra in the ferromagnetic region were interpreted in terms of a distribution of crystal field gradient directions which has its origins from the splitting of the coordinates of Ge atoms due to the presence of vacancies at 2d site. No magnetic contribution was found for Ni, while a small magnetic moment was found to be supplied by Co. In the 2a site (the on...

Phase transitions and magnetic entropy change in Mn-rich Ni2MnGa alloys

Thermomagnetic and magnetocaloric (MC) properties of Ni2MnGa Heusler alloys are found to be very sensitive to small composition variations. It is shown that the temperature behavior of ac susceptibility mimics that of MC properties of the samples. The coincidence of magnetic and structural transformations is found for a Mn-rich composition. As in the case of Ni-rich alloys, the magnetocaloric effect is enhanced at the transitions co-occurrence. The increase of Mn content, with respect to the stoichiometric value, rapidly decreases anisotropy field and saturation magnetization.