Mössbauer spectroscopy, crystallographic, magnetic and electronic structure of ZnFe 3N and InFe 3N

Abstract

In this work, mechanical alloying is used to obtain the γ′-Zn 0.6Fe 3.4N perovskite nitrides. A single-phase γ′-ZnFe 3N was not obtained but indium substitution leads to a single-phase compound not fully ordered. X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer measurements were performed on these compounds. We found that InFe 3N is paramagnetic while magnetic measurements made at low temperature give 4.65 μ B as the magnetic moment per unit formula for zinc substitution. Self-consistent LMTO calculations were performed for γ′-ZnFe 3N and γ′-InFe 3N fully ordered compounds. Ferromagnetic calculations for γ′-InFe 3N give null magnetic moment, that is, paramagnetic is the stable phase. For γ′-ZnFe 3N, the calculated magnetic moment was 3.60 μ B per unit formula. Also, theoretical results, in the zinc case, were compared with Mössbauer results in terms of isomer shift and magnetic hyperfine field.