Exchange Effects in the Invar Hardening: Fe0.65Ni0.35Fe_{0.65}Ni_{0.35} as a test case

An increase of the critical resolved shear stress of Invar alloys (Invar hardening) with a lowering temperature is explained. The effect is caused by a growth of the exchange interaction between dangling $d$-electron states of dislocation cores and paramagnetic obstacles (e.g., Ni atoms in FeNi alloys) which occurs below the Curie temperature. The spins of the two electrons align along the magnetization due to the exchange interaction with the surrounding atoms of the ferromagnetic. The exchange interaction between the dislocations and obstacles is enhanced in Invars due to a strong growth of the magnetic moments of atoms under the action of elastic strains near the dislocation cores. Parameters characterizing the exchange interaction are determined for the case of the Fe$_{0.65}$Ni$_{0.35}$ Invar. The influence of the internal magnetic field on the dislocation detachment from the obstacles is taken into account. The obtained temperature dependence of the critical resolved shear stress in the Fe$_{0.65}$Ni$_{0.35}$ Invar agrees well with the available experimental data. Experiments facilitating a further check of the theoretical model are suggested.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Relaxation of Electron Spin during High-Field Transport in GaAs Bulk

A semiclassical Monte Carlo approach is adopted to study the multivalley spin depolarization of drifting electrons in a doped n-type GaAs bulk semiconductor, in a wide range of lattice temperature ($40<T_L<300$ K) and doping density ($10^{13}<n<10^{16}$cm$^{-3}$). The decay of the initial non-equilibrium spin polarization of the conduction electrons is investigated as a function of the amplitude of the driving static electric field, ranging between 0.1 and 6 kV/cm, by considering the spin dynamics of electrons in both the $\Gamma$ and the upper valleys of the semiconductor. Doping density considerably affects spin relaxation at low temperature and weak intensity of the driving electric field. At high values of the electric field, the strong spin-orbit coupling of electrons in the $L$-valleys significantly reduces the average spin polarization lifetime, but, unexpectedly, for field amplitudes greater than 2.5 kV/cm, the spin lifetime increases with the lattice temperature. Our numerical findings are validated by a good agreement with the available experimental results and with calculations recently obtained by a different theoretical approach.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure