Structural and magnetic properties of mechanically alloyed AlCuFe intermetallics

We present here a study of the structural and magnetic properties of a series of mechanically alloyed intermetallics around a central composition Al 5 0 Cu 2 0 Fe 3 0 , varying the Cu and Fe content. All the samples have bcccrystalline structure with partial B2 order and show no evidence of a magnetic splitting in the Mossbauer spectra. Thermal annealing, removes some defects but do not change this structural feature. All the studied alloys show, at room temperature, a hysteresis loop that may be interpreted in terms of two magnetic components coming respectively from superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic-like regions. The parameters characterizing thess magnetic properties change with composition but no systematic behavior could be deduced.