Spin reorientation and giant low-temperature magnetostriction of polycrystalline NdFe1.9 compound

The spin reorientation and magnetostriction of polycrystalline NdFe1.9 cubic Laves phase compound were investigated. A prominent transition from tetragonal symmetry to orthorhombic symmetry in NdFe1.9 compound was determined by X-ray crystallographic study. Meanwhile, a large spontaneous magnetostriction λ111 of ∼3100 ppm was detected at 15 K, which is larger than the theoretical value of 2000 ppm predicted by single-ion model. NdFe1.9 exhibits larger low-field magnetostriction than PrFe1.9 and TbFe1.9 at 5 K in the magnetic field range of H ≤ 13 kOe, which makes it a promising material for low-temperature applications. The present work might be helpful to discover inexpensive Nd-based high-performance magnetostrictive and even magnetoelectric materials for low-temperature applications.