The influence of thermal annealing on structural order in the μ-Al4Mn complex intermetallic

Abstract

Abstract The influence of cooling rate on structural order in the complex hexagonal μ-Al4Mn phase was investigated. As higher magnetizations are detected in more disordered samples, the short-scale disorder was studied indirectly by magnetic measurements. The magnetizations of as-grown samples and samples subjected to different thermal treatments were compared. It was found that water-quenching increases the disorder in the crystal structure regardless of previous thermal history. Qualitatively the same results were obtained for the quasicrystalline i-Al—Pd—Mn phase where the changes in magnetic properties and consequently in the degree of structural order for different thermal treatments were even more pronounced.