Effect of Chromium Substitution for Iron on the Magnetic and Structural Properties of (TmxPr1– x)2Fe17

Abstract

The (TmxPr1 – x)2Fe17 and (TmxPr1 – x)2Fe16.5Cr0.5 compounds crystallize with the formation of the rhombohedral Th2Zn17-type structure for the compositions with x = 0–0.4 and the hexagonal Th2Ni17-type structure for the compositions with x = 0.8–1 and x = 0.75–1, respectively. Both structures coexist in the (TmxPr1 – x)2Fe17 and (TmxPr1 – x)2Fe16.5Cr0.5 compounds with x = 0.5–0.75 and x = 0.5–0.6, respectively. The (TmxPr1 – x)2Fe17 compositions with 0 < x < 0.6 are ferrimagnets; at x = 0.6–1, additionally a high-temperature helical magnetic state is realized. The substitution of chromium for iron leads to the transformation of the helimagnet to ferrimagnet; in this case, the difference between the Curie temperatures of rhombohedral and hexagonal phases is unexpectedly high (25–28 К). For the composition with x = 0.8, the Curie and Neel temperatures and the ferrimagnet–helimagnet transformation temperature are minimum, and the microdeformations are maximum. The overlap of two peaks in –ΔSM(T), which correspond to the magnetic entropy change at two magnetic phase transformation temperatures, favors the realization of the higher cooling capacity of the two-phase compositions as compared to that of neighboring single-phase compositions.