Structural and Magnetic Characteristics of TiFe2–ZrFe2 and ZrCo2–ZrFe2 Alloys

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Abstract
Structures and unit‐cell dimensions for a number of alloys of TiFe2–ZrFe2 and of ZrCo2–ZrFe2 have been determined at room temperature, and the magnetic properties of alloys of the two systems have been investigated over a range of temperature extending from 4° to 650°K. Results for the TiFe2–ZrFe2 system show two terminal phases separated by a two‐phase region extending from 56 to 85 mole % ZrFe2. TiFe2 behaves like a strongly paramagnetic substance with a susceptibility which is practically temperature independent, whereas ZrFe2 is ferromagnetic with a Curie temperature of 355°C. The effective moment per iron atom, obtained from the observed saturation magnetization at 4°K, is 1.62 μB. The reduced moment in both the TiFe2 and ZrFe2 phases compared to that for elemental iron is attributed to a transfer of charge from Ti or Zr to iron. The ZrCo2–ZrFe2 alloys form a single phase system which approximately obeys Vegard's law. ZrCo2 is found to be fairly strongly paramagnetic at room temperature, while at low temperature it appears to be either very weakly ferromagnetic or paramagnetic with a susceptibility which is field dependent and shows saturation effects. As ZrCo2 is dissolved in ZrFe2, the shapes of the magnetization—temperature curves change in a way which indicates that the destruction of the ferromagnetism occurs over an unusually large temperature interval. This effect is attributed to microscopic variations in the molecular field in the solid solutions. The small values of the observed magnetic moments suggest that in these materials zirconium donates electrons to iron and cobalt. When Fe in ZrFe2 is progressively replaced by Co, the average moment of Co and Fe is observed to decrease initially and to reach a minimum at about 40 mole % ZrFe2.

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