Kinetic arrest induced antiferromagnetic order in hexagonal FeMnP0.75Si0.25 alloy

The magnetic state of the FeMnP0.75Si0.25 alloy was investigated by first principles calculations. The coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases in FeMnP0.75Si0.25 with the same hexagonal crystal structure was revealed. It was found that kinetic arrest during the transition from the high temperature disordered paramagnetic phase to the low temperature ordered ferromagnetic phase results in the intermediate metastable and partially disordered antiferromagnetic phase. We propose that the ratio of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases in the FeMnP0.75Si0.25 sample can be tuned by adjusting the kinetic process of atomic diffusion. The investigations suggest that careful control of the kinetic diffusion process provides another tuning parameter to design candidate magnetocaloric materials.