Thermal Differential EXAFS

Submitted versio

Measurement of Individual Bond Magnetostrictive Strain in α-TbFe2

The structural changes exhibited by materials in response to their surroundings is of fundamental importance across countless disciplines in science and engineering. In the field of transducer technologies, strain-inducing phenomena (such as magnetostriction) are utilised in their own right, and form the physical foundation for sensor and actuator devices. Knowledge of their origin, and how they manifest themselves in different materials, underpins the development of new transducers and the optimisation of existing technologies. Yet in spite of this, direct measurement of a material’s intrinsic magnetostriction – the strain induced between individual atoms at a microscopic level – has proven elusive. This has essentially been due to the difficulty in measuring atomic motion with sufficient precision. In most materials, magnetostrictive atomic displacements saturate at just a few femtometres. Here, even sensitive atomic probes, such as x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), lack the resolution to observe this motion by some two orders of magnitude. As a result, common experiments employ strain gauges on macroscopic samples, where the strain is easier to detect, but where atomic information is lost. However, with the recent development of differential XAS (DiffXAS) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), such atomic-scale measurements have become possible [1,2]. Initial studies into the magnetostriction of FeCo thin films demonstrated a sensitivity to femtometre scale motion [1]. Subsequent work extended this study to investigate the magnetoelastic coupling of FeCo under applied hydrostatic pressure [3], and new experiments looked into the behaviour of FePt, and rare-earth iron alloys such as Fe2Tb. But the most significant study conducted to date has been that of the Fe-Ga system [4,5]. In recent years, binary metal alloys such as Fe-Al or Fe-Ga, have attracted considerable interest [6]. It is well known that pure Fe exhibits only an extremely small magnetostriction, but when alloyed with certain nonmagnetic metallic elements, it can be enhanced by over an order of magnitude. Compositions of Fe-Ga with around 19at% Ga have reported strains of up to 400 ppm [7]. Although this doesn’t constitute a truly ‘giant’ magnetostriction, it is of interest for device applications since Fe-Ga is devoid of expensive rare-earth components, saturates in fields of only several hundred Oersteds, and possesses more desirable mechanical properties than, say, the much studied Terfenol-D alloy. In order to identify the origin of this enhancement, we took a splat-cooled foil of Fe81Ga19 and measured its Joule saturation magnetostriction with DiffXAS [4]. Unlike conventional macroscopic measurements that describe the sample as a whole, magnetostriction coefficients provided by DiffXAS describe the strain of just the first two or three atomic coordination shells surrounding a photo-excited atom. Furthermore, since it is possible to tune the x-ray energy, and so select which atom in the material is excited, it is possible to look at the strain in the local environment of each atomic species separately. Contributions from different types of bond within the structure may then be decoupled and analysed. Such fundamental information has immense value when attempting to verify theoretical models. In 2002, Wu [8] proposed a model for the magnetostriction of FexGa(1-x) that suggested a tetragonal “B2-like” structure in the vicinity of the Ga atoms was responsible for the observed enhancement. More recently, Cullen et al. [9] reached a similar conclusion, and stated that such a structure could be formed by Ga pairs randomly arranged throughout the material. Conventional XAS studies have confirmed the presence of these Ga pairs [5], but it is DiffXAS that describes how they influence the magnetostriction. From our DiffXAS spectra, we extracted the strain present in different types of bond, and with a subsequent analysis, solved the magnetostriction tensor for the material. This provided two sets of magnetostriction coefficients. In the environment around Fe, (3/2)100 = 40ppm and (3/2)111 = -32ppm, and in the environment around Ga, (3/2)100 = 390ppm and (3/2)111 ~0ppm. This demonstrates that the observed enhancement is dominated by strain in the vicinity of the Ga atoms. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that the strain in the Ga pairs was negligible, indicating that they do not contribute directly to the enhanced magnetostriction, but rather mediate the enhancement in the surrounding Ga-Fe bonds. Further experiments are planned to examine the full range of compositions over which magnetostriction enhancement is observed in this system, and, with the use of single crystal samples, investigate how the microscopic magnetostriction scales up to that seen macroscopically. [1] R.F. Pettifer, O. Mathon, S. Pascarelli, M.D. Cooke, M.R. J. Gibbs, Nature 435, 79 (2005) [2] M. P. Ruffoni, R.F. Pettifer, S. Pascarelli et al., AIP Conf. Proc. No. 882, 838 (2007) [3] S. Pascarelli, M. P. Ruffoni, A. Trapananti et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 237204 (2007) [4] M. P. Ruffoni, S. Pascarelli, R. Grössinger et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 147202 (2008) [5] S. Pascarelli, M. P. Ruffoni, R. Sato-Turtelli et al., Phys. Rev. B 77, 184406 (2008) [6] E. M. Summers, T. A. Lograsso, M. Wun-Fogle, J. Mater. Sci. 42, 9582 (2007) [7] A. E. Clark, A. B. Hathaway, M. Wun-Fogle et al., J. Appl. Phys. 93, 8621 (2003) [8] R. Wu, J. Appl. Phys. 91, 7358 (2002) [9] J. Cullen, P. Zhao, M. Wuttig, J. Appl. Phys. 101, 123922 (2007)Submitted versio

Measuring strain at the atomic-scale with Differential X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

The development of smart materials for use in transducer devices has driven considerable research in recent decades. In this field, phenomena such as magnetostriction underpin the operation of sensors and actuators, and energy harvesting devices. Thus, knowledge of their origin and mechanics, and how they manifest themselves in different materials, enables the development of new devices and optimisation of existing technologies. Yet this research is not without its limitations. Theoretical studies naturally describe material properties at a fundamental, atomic-scale. But experimental work struggles to verify such models at a similarly microscopic scale. Saturation strains from typical magnetostrictive materials induce displacements between neighbouring atoms of only a few femtometres. On such a scale, even commonly employed local probes, such as x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), lack the resolution to observe this motion by some two orders of magnitude. As a result, experiments typically employ strain gauges on large, macroscopic samples, where the strain is easier to detect, but where atomic information is lost. However, the recent development of differential XAS (DiffXAS) at the ESRF presents a unique opportunity to bridge this gap between macro-scale experimental work, and fundamental theoretical models [1]. This talk will study the development of DiffXAS via the most significant results obtained to date. These include studies of the important Fe-Ga and Fe-Pt systems, where DiffXAS analysis procedures have allowed chemically-selective, atomic magnetostriction coefficients to be quantified [2][3]; and an investigation of the magneto-elastic coupling of FeCo through measurements under applied hydrostatic pressure [4]. [1] R.F. Pettifer et al., Nature 435, 79 (2005) [2] M. P. Ruffoni et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 147202 (2008) [3] S. Pascarelli et al., Phys. Rev. B 77, 184406 (2008) [4] S. Pascarelli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 237204 (2007)Submitted versio