Search

Neutron diffraction studies have been performed on five Cr-Re single crystal alloys with a Re content from 0 to 0·8 at. %. It was found that the wave vector of the sinusoidally modulated spin arrangement increases uniformly with temperature and concentration until a critical value of about 0·97. (2π/ a ) when it changes abruptly to 2π/ a . This agrees with earlier experiments on Cr-Mn alloys. For dilute Cr alloys there is thus no essential difference between the addition of 5 d -electrons and 3 d -electrons. It was furthermore found that the most dilute alloys undergo a first order transition at the Neel temperature in agreement with earlier observations on pure Cr. Due to experimental difficulties the order of the transition at the Neel temperature cannot be determined unambiguously for the more concentrated alloys.

Detailed neutron diffraction investigations have been performed on Cr-Re alloys in order to explain the several observations in Cr alloys of the coexistence of a commensurable and an oscillatory magnetic phase. It is concluded that the individual magnetic phases probably occur in separate domains.