Magnetism, elasticity, and magnetostriction of FeCoGa alloys

It is known that the substitution of Co for Fe gives rise to increases in magnetization and Curie temperature, not only in the bcc metals, but also in intermetallic compounds and alloys as well. With the expectation that this is the case in Co-substituted FeGa, we measured magnetization, Curie temperature, magnetostriction and elastic constants of a series of polycrystalline FeCoGa ternary alloys with up to 17% Ga and up to 10% Co. The magnetostriction at saturation for Fe0.93-xCo.07Gax increases to 90 ppm for x=0.17. For larger percentages of Co, the rise in magnetostriction is not as sharp as it is in the 7% case. The shear elastic modulus decreases with Ga, again in keeping with the results for FeGa. The magnetostriction and the elastic constants are sensitive to sample preparation for the high-Ga material. We conclude that the substitution of small (<0.10) percentages of Co for Fe in bcc FeCoGa alloys enhances the magnetic and magnetostrictive properties of the parent FeGa material. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.