Magnetization studies of first-order magnetostructural phase transition in polycrystalline FeRh thin films

Abstract

The nucleation and growth of the transformed phase in the matrix of the original phase played an important role in the progress of magnetic transition. In spite of extensive investigations in B2 ordered FeRh alloy systems, until now few studies have been conducted for clarifying the nucleation and growth mechanism of the antiferromagnetic–ferromagnetic phase transition in FeRh alloys. In this work, B2 ordered polycrystalline FeRh thin films were fabricated on glass substrates by a sputtering technique and subsequent heat treatment. The as-deposited film shows a nonmagnetic property because of its face centred cubic structure. After annealing, the polycrystalline FeRh thin films show a clear first-order magnetostructural phase transition. The FeRh thin film shows an overall activation energy of about 228.6 kJ mol−1 for the entire first-order magnetostructural phase transition process. Results suggest that the first-order magnetostructural phase transition in ordered FeRh thin films follows the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami model with characteristic exponent n in the range 1–4, indicating that the phase transition process is a multi-step process characterized by different nucleation and growth mechanisms of the new ferromagnetic phase. The results obtained in this study will shed light on the underlying physics of the first-order magnetostructural phase transition of ordered FeRh alloys. The applicability of the concepts used in this study to the FeRh system shows universality and can be applied to other material systems where there is a first-order magnetostructural phase transition such as in manganites.