Giant volume magnetostriction due to the itinerant electron metamagnetic transition in La(Fe-Si)/sub 13/ compounds

摘要

Ferromagnetic La(Fe/sub x/Si/sub 1-x/)/sub 13/ compounds with x/spl ges/0.87 show an itinerant metamagnetic transition above the Curie temperature T/sub c/. Since a large volume change of about 1.5% is caused by the transition, the present compounds have a possibility for practical applications as giant magnetostrictive materials. To adjust T/sub c/ around room temperature, the effect of the substitution by other magnetic elements on the Curie temperature was examined. The Curie temperature of La(Fe/sub 0.88/Co/sub y/Si/sub 0.12-y/)/sub 13/ compounds increases with increasing y and the itinerant electron metamagnetic transition appears above T/sub c/. For y=0.03 and 0.04, a huge volume change of 0.6/spl sim/0.9%, or a linear change of 0.2/spl sim/0.3%, due to the itinerant metamagnetic transition is observed around 250 K.