Comparative study of the structural and magnetic properties of bulk and nanostructured Fe2CrAl

摘要

Nanostructured Fe2CrAl has been prepared by mechanical alloying using a high energy ball mill. The structural and magnetic properties of the as-milled and mechanically alloyed sample annealed in the presence of a magnetic field have been studied by means of X-ray diffractometry, 57Fe M?ssbauer spectroscopy and DC magnetization. The observed properties are compared to that of the bulk sample. The magnetic hyperfine fields are related to structural disorder. There is a very good enhancement of bulk magnetic properties in the nano-sized samples, the most notable one being a dramatic increase in the Curie temperature of these samples and are explained in terms of structural disordering and size effect.