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Manganese-based alloys with the composition Mn2FeZ (Z = Si, Al) have been extensively investigated in recent years due to their potential applications in spintronics. The Mn2FeSi alloy, prepared in the form of ingots, powders, or ribbons, exhibits either a cubic full-Heusler (L21) structure, an inverse-Heusler (XA) structure, or a combination of both. In contrast, the Mn2FeAl alloy has so far been synthesized only in the form of ingots, featuring a primitive cubic (β-Mn type) structure. This study focuses on the new quaternary Mn2FeSi0.5Al0.5 alloy synthesized from pure Mn, Fe, Si, and Al powders via mechanical alloying. The elemental powders were ball-milled for 168 h with a ball-to-powder ratio of 10:1, followed by annealing at 550 °C, 700 °C, and 950 °C for 8 h in an argon protective atmosphere. The results demonstrate that annealing at lower temperatures (550 °C) led to the formation of a Heusler structure with a lattice constant of 0.5739 nm. Annealing at 700 °C resulted in the coexistence of several phases, including the Heusler phase and a newly developed primitive cubic β-Mn structure. Further increasing the annealing temperature to 950 °C completely suppressed the Heusler phase, with the β-Mn structure, having a lattice constant of 0.6281 nm, becoming the dominant phase. These findings confirm the possibility of tuning the structure of Mn2FeSi0.5Al0.5 alloy powder—and thereby its physical properties—by varying the annealing temperature. The sensitivity of magnetic properties to structural changes is demonstrated through magnetization curves and zero-field-cooled/field-cooled curves in the temperature range of 5 K to 300 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the quaternary Mn2FeSi0.5Al0.5 alloys are prepared for the first time in the form of cylinder-shaped ingots by traditional induction melting technique followed by homogenization annealing at 773 K for 100 h. The microstructural and magnetic properties of as-cast and annealed Mn2FeSi0.5Al0.5 samples are analyzed in detail and compared to the Mn2FeSi and Mn2FeAl ternary alloys. The Mn2FeSi0.5Al0.5 ingots are two-phase both before and after annealing, and their diffractograms correspond to the primitive cubic β-Mn structure. Obtained lattice constant of 0.6274 nm is only slightly lower than that of Mn2FeAl alloy (0.6339 nm) and different from Mn2FeSi (0.5672 nm). The existence of both phases enriched in Si at the expense of Al and Mn was confirmed by differential thermal analysis showing two endothermic and exothermic peaks at temperatures of 1363 K and 1407 K. The magnetic properties of both quaternary samples studied in wide temperature range from 5 K to 573 K indicate paramagnetic behavior at room and elevated temperatures. The annealed system has the values of Curie temperature and effective paramagnetic moment comparable to the ternary Mn2FeAl alloy. The transition to antiferromagnetic state occurring at Néel temperatures of 34 K (as-cast sample) and 37 K (annealed sample) is caused by strong geometric frustration of β-Mn structure. The magnetic transitions observed in both samples between Néel and room temperature are discussed in terms of the existence of Griffiths phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]