Local rhombohedral symmetry in Tb{sub 0.3}Dy{sub 0.7}Fe{sub 2} near the morphotropic phase boundary

Journal Article · Mon Nov 10 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4901646· OSTI ID:22391957

Ma, Tianyu ^[1]; Liu, Xiaolian; Pan, Xingwen; Li, Xiang; Jiang, Yinzhu; Yan, Mi ^[1]; Li, Huiying; Fang, Minxia ^[2]; Ren, Xiaobing ^[3]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Novel Materials for Information Technology of Zhejiang Province, Cyrus Tang Center for Sensor Materials and Applications, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027 (China)
2. Multi-disciplinary Materials Research Center, Frontier Institute of Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049 (China)
3. Ferroic Physics Group, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba 305-0047, Ibaraki (Japan)

The recently reported morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) in a number of giant magnetostrictive materials (GMMs) has drawn considerable interest to the local symmetry/structure near MPB region of these materials. In this letter, by in-situ X-ray diffraction and AC magnetic susceptibility measurements, we show that Tb{sub 0.3}Dy{sub 0.7}Fe{sub 2}, the typical composition of Terfenol-D GMMs, has coexistence of rhombohedral and tetragonal phases over a wide temperature range in the vicinity of MPB. High resolution transmission electron microscopy provides direct evidence for local rhombohedral symmetry of the ferromagnetic phase and reveals regular-shaped nanoscale domains below 10 nm. The nano-sized structural/magnetic domains are hierarchically inside a single micron-sized stripe-like domain with the same average magnetization direction. Such domain structures are consistent with the low magnetocrystalline anisotropy and easy magnetic/structural domain switching under magnetic field, thus generating large magnetostriction at low field.

• OSTI ID: 22391957
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
DOMAIN STRUCTURE
DYSPROSIUM COMPOUNDS
IRON COMPOUNDS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY
MAGNETIZATION
MAGNETOSTRICTION
NANOSTRUCTURES
SYMMETRY
TEMPERATURE RANGE
TERBIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
TRIGONAL LATTICES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION