Local electronic and magnetic properties of pure and Mn-containing magnetocaloric LaFe sub(13-x)Si sub(x) compounds inferred from Mossbauer spectroscopy and magnetometry

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Vol. 48; no. 30; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Makarov, Sergey I, Krautz, Maria, Salamon, Soma, Skokov, Konstantin, Teixeira, Cristiano S, Gutfleisch, Oliver, Wende, Heiko, Keune, Werner
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 05.08.2015
• Subjects: Alloys; Curie temperature; Hydrogen storage; Magnetic properties; Manganese; Manganese base alloys; Mossbauer spectroscopy; Saturation (magnetic)
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/48/30/305006

Manganese containing La-Fe-Si alloys are important magnetocaloric compounds, since Mn atoms prevent segregation of hydrogen in partially hydrogenated La-Fe-Mn-Si alloys when their Curie temperature is tuned to room temperature by hydrogen. The effect of Mn alloying on the Fe atomic magnetic moment [mu[subFe]] is still rather unexplored. Therefore, we investigated the (local) magnetic and electric hyperfine interactions in the strongly magnetocaloric compound LaFe[sub 11.3]Mn[sub 0.3]Si[sub 1.4] and, for comparison, LaFe[sub 11.6]Si[sub 1.4] by [sup 57]Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy, and the global magnetic properties by vibrating sample magnetometry. Our Mossbauer results are in good agreement with magnetometry, which reveals a reduction of the saturation magnetization of M[subs] = 163.1(1)Am[sup 2] kg[sup -1] of LaFe[sub 11.6]Si[sub 1.4] by 10.5% due to Mn substitution.