Coexistence of ferro- and antiferromagnetic order in Mn-doped Ni2_2MnGa

Ni-Mn-Ga is interesting as a prototype of a magnetic shape-memory alloy showing large magnetic field induced strains. We present here results for the magnetic ordering of Mn-rich Ni-Mn-Ga alloys based on both experiments and theory. Experimental trends for the composition dependence of the magnetization are measured by a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) in magnetic fields of up to several tesla and at low temperatures. The saturation magnetization has a maximum near the stoichiometric composition and it decreases with increasing Mn content. This unexpected behaviour is interpreted via first-principles calculations within the density-functional theory. We show that extra Mn atoms are antiferromagnetically aligned to the other moments, which explains the dependence of the magnetization on composition. In addition, the effect of Mn doping on the stabilization of the structural phases and on the magnetic anisotropy energy is demonstrated.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A two dimensional model for ferromagnetic martensites

We consider a recently introduced 2-D square-to-rectangle martensite model that explains several unusual features of martensites to study ferromagnetic martensites. The strain order parameter is coupled to the magnetic order parameter through a 4-state clock model. Studies are carried out for several combinations of the ordering of the Curie temperatures of the austenite and martensite phases and, the martensite transformation temperature. We find that the orientation of the magnetic order which generally points along the short axis of the rectangular variant, changes as one crosses the twin or the martensite-austenite interface. The model shows the possibility of a subtle interplay between the growth of strain and magnetic order parameters as the temperature is decreased. In some cases, this leads to qualitatively different magnetization curves from those predicted by earlier mean field models. Further, we find that strain morphology can be substantially altered by the magnetic order. We have also studied the dynamic hysteresis behavior. The corresponding dissipation during the forward and reverse cycles has features similar to the Barkhausen's noise.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figure

Non-equilibrium emission of complex fragments from p+Au collisions at 2.5 GeV proton beam energy

Energy and angular dependence of double differential cross sections d$^2\sigma$/d$\Omega$dE was measured for reactions induced by 2.5 GeV protons on Au target with isotopic identification of light products (H, He, Li, Be, and B) and with elemental identification of heavier intermediate mass fragments (C, N, O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, and Al). It was found that two different reaction mechanisms give comparable contributions to the cross sections. The intranuclear cascade of nucleon-nucleon collisions followed by evaporation from an equilibrated residuum describes low energy part of the energy distributions whereas another reaction mechanism is responsible for high energy part of the spectra of composite particles. Phenomenological model description of the differential cross sections by isotropic emission from two moving sources led to a very good description of all measured data. Values of the extracted parameters of the emitting sources are compatible with the hypothesis claiming that the high energy particles emerge from pre-equilibrium processes consisting in a breakup of the target into three groups of nucleons; small, fast and hot fireball of $\sim$ 8 nucleons, and two larger, excited prefragments, which emits the light charged particles and intermediate mass fragments. The smaller of them contains $\sim$ 20 nucleons and moves with velocity larger than the CM velocity of the proton projectile and the target. The heavier prefragment behaves similarly as the heavy residuum of the intranuclear cascade of nucleon-nucleon collisions. %The mass and charge dependence of the total production cross %sections was extracted from the above analysis for all observed %reaction products. This dependence follows the power low behavior %(A$^{-\tau}$ or Z$^{-\tau}$)

Study of the 3He-eta system in d-p collisions at COSY-11

We present preliminary results from dp --> 3He X (X=pi0,eta) measurements near the eta production threshold. The data were taken during a slow ramping of the COSY internal deuteron beam scattered on a proton target. The 3He ejectiles were registered with the COSY-11 detection setup. The ongoing data analysis should deliver high precision data for the dp --> 3He eta total and differential cross sections for the excess energies in the range from threshold up to 9 MeV. The preliminary excitation function for the reaction dp --> 3He pi0 does not show any structure which could originate from the decay of 3He-eta bound state. We present also a threshold excitation curve for the dp --> 3He X channel. Contrary to corresponding results from SATURNE we see no cusp in the vicinity of the eta threshold.Comment: 8 pages; 5 figures; Talk at Eta05 Workshop on Production and Decay of eta and eta-prime Mesons, Cracow, Poland, 15-18 Sep 2005; Acta Phys. Slovaca, in prin

Drift chamber with a c-shaped frame

We present the construction of a planar drift chamber with wires stretched between two arms of a c-shaped aluminium frame. The special shape of the frame allows to extendthe momentum acceptance of the COSY-11 detection system towards lower momenta without suppressing the high momentum particles. The proposed design allows for construction of tracking detectors covering small angles with respect to the beam, which can be installed and removed without dismounting the beam-pipe. For a three-dimensional track reconstruction a computer code was developed using a simple algorithm of hit preselection.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instr. & Meth

Structural, thermal, and magnetic properties of Ni[sub 2]MnGa

The two main effects underlying the magnetic shape memory effect in Ni2MnGa are martensitic transformations and magnetic anisotropy energies. Both issues are addressed here with first-principles calculations. First, we examine how the tetragonality in the martensitic phase varies with the composition. Then, the actual transformation is investigated by comparing the free energies of different phases. The transition from the cubic structure to the tetragonal structure with c/a=1.27 is driven by the vibrational free energy and occurs at a temperature of 200 K which is in the experimental range. Finally, we focus on the magnetic anisotropy energy for the tetragonal structure with c/a=0.94. It is shown to be a magnetically nearly ideal uniaxial system determined by the first-order anisotropy constant. However, it is estimated that the twinned microstructure can cause higher-order anisotropies to show up in the measured anisotropy.Peer reviewe