Nitrogen-Induced Change of Magnetic Properties in Antiperovskite-Type Carbide: Mn3InC**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 91122026 and 51472017.

Abstract

The effects of N substitution on the magnetic properties of Mn3InC1−xNx (0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.7) are investigated systematically. Partial substitution of N for C leads to the monotonic reduction in both the Curie temperature TC and saturated magnetization MS. The final results obtained from thermo-magnetic curves demonstrate that Mn3InC1−xNx samples show a magnetic phase transition from a paramagnetic (PM) state to a ferrimagnetic (FIM) state consisting of ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) components. In addition, there is a competition between the AFM component and the FM component in the FIM state with the change of the N-doped content. Magnetic measurements of Mn3InC at 100 Oe and 5000 Oe indicate the metastability and the coexistence of different magnetic phases at lower temperature. The spans of FIM phase broaden gradually with further N doping. The mechanism for the induction of the complicated magnetic state is still in controversy. However, the results clearly show that the doping at the X site in antiperovskite Mn3AX materials is as useful as that of the A and Mn sites.