Structural and magnetic properties of the Fe0.7−xSi0.3Cox alloy system

In this paper we present magnetic and structural studies for the alloy system Fe0.7−xSi0.3Cox, where 0⩽x⩽0.3. The structural characteristics of the alloys were evaluated using X-ray diffraction and the existence of the single cubic phase was confirmed from the diffraction patterns. The lattice constant was found to depend on the Co concentration with a slight decrease with increasing the concentration, x. The magnetic measurements were performed by using a vibrating sample magnetometer with a maximum field of 13.5 kOe, at temperatures between 77 and 1000 K. The results for all the samples show ferromagnetic behavior up to Curie temperature. The saturation magnetization at low temperatures was found to increase with increasing Co concentration, reaching a maximum at x=0.2 then decreases for x=0.3. The Curie temperature was found to increase from 690 K for x=0 to 972 K for x=0.3.