A μSR study of the magnetic ground state of Ni 3Al

Abstract

The magnetic ground state of a well-characterised and highly ordered Ni 3Al sample has been studied by muon spin relaxation. Although it is widely accepted that Ni 3Al is an archetypal homogeneous weak itinerant electron ferromagnet with a Curie temperature of 40 K, our μSR measurements provide no evidence of long-range magnetic order, but instead indicate the evolution of an inhomogeneous magnetic ground state at temperatures below 40 K in which relatively static magnetic clusters coexist with a spin fluctuating state.