Correlation between microstructure, magnetic and electronic properties of Fe1−xAlx (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.6) alloys produced by arc melting

In the present manuscript the authors have systematically investigated the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of a series of arc melted Fe1−xAlx (0.2 ≤ x ≤ 0.6) alloys using XRD, VSM, resistivity and XPS techniques. Structural studies show that all the samples are textured mainly along (1 1 0) direction, the crystallize size decreases with increase in Al content and also that the samples are not uniformly alloyed even though they have been annealed at 600 °C for 120 h. The corresponding magnetic measurements show that the saturation magnetization decreases with x. This is attributable to a competition between nearest neighbour Fe-Fe ferromagnetic exchange and an indirect FeAl anti-ferromagnetic interaction. On the other hand resistivity increases with x and found to be maximum at x = 0.4. Further addition of Al leads to a decrease in the electrical resistivity. The corresponding XPS measurements also show modification in the core level as well as VB spectra of the samples. The observed changes can be attributed to the continuous change in electronic structure due to constant increase of Fe 3d and Al 3sp hybridization near Fermi level accompanied by an increased delocalization of the d-electrons participating in the strong bonding of Fe with Al.