New article by grad student Daniel Wines and Dr. Ataca

“Influence of Cr-substitution on the structural, magnetic, electron transport, and mechanical properties of Fe3-xCrxGe Heusler alloys”

Rabin Mahat, Shambh KC, Daniel Wines, Sudhir Regmia, Upama Karkia, Zhong Lia, Fatih Ersan, JiaYan Lawd, Can Ataca, Victorino Franco, Arunava Gupta, Patrick LeClair

STEAM Lab members Daniel Wines, Fatih Ersan (former), Dr. Ataca and experimental collaborators from the University of Alabama investigate how Cr substitution can tune the electronic, mechanical and magnetic properties of Fe3-xCrxGe Heusler alloys for future spintronic and magnetic storage devices.

Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2020.167398

Abstract: We performed combined experimental and theoretical studies of the effect of Cr substitution for Fe on the structural, magnetic, transport, electronic, and mechanical properties of Fe3−xCrxGe (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) intermetallic alloys. Single phase microstructures are observed for x ≤ 0.70. Higher Cr concentrations x > 0.70 are multi-phased. A hexagonal D019 structure is found for all Cr concentrations, with the lattice parameters increasing systematically with an increasing Cr content. All the alloys in the series are found to be ferromagnets with large magnetization values of about 6 Bohr Magneton/fu. and high Curie temperature above room temperature. The low-temperature saturation magnetic moments agree fairly well with our theoretical results and also obey the Slater-Pauling rule. The density functional theory calculation reveals that Cr substitution energetically favours one of the Fe sites in Fe3Ge. The electrical resistivity measured over the temperature range from 5 K to 400 K shows metallic behavior, with a residual resistivity ratio that decreases with Cr content. Vicker’s hardness values are observed to increase with increasing Cr content to approximately 5 GPa.

Posted: October 30, 2020, 1:56 PM