Large-Scale Synthesis and Origin of the Thermally Enhanced Saturation Magnetization of Antiperovskite Manganese Carbide Mn4C
摘要
Magnetic materials with thermally enhanced saturation magnetization (MS) are very rare but critically important, as they help resist the thermal degradation of magnetic properties caused by the disruption of magnetic ordering at elevated temperatures. This paper summarizes magnetic materials that exhibit anomalous thermal enhancement of saturation magnetization. Particularly, a solid-state reaction method was developed for large scale synthesis of antiperovskite Mn4+xC, which is the latest system that exhibits thermal-enhanced magnetization. The neutron diffraction results indicate a ferrimagnetic structure of Mn4C, in which the face-centered Mn moments (~ 1.122(12)µB) vary little with temperature while the cornered Mn moment decreases from 3.227(15)µB at 10 K to 3.187(14)µB at 300 K, resulting in the increasing saturation magnetization with increasing temperature. A total energy calculation on the Mn4C unit cell suggests an easy axis of [111]. Our theoretical and neutron results agree satisfactorily with the measured magnetization of Mn4C samples. This work provides a more effective synthesis method of Mn4C, a better understanding to the origin of positive temperature coefficient of magnetization in Mn4C, and a method to control the dMS/dT of Mn4+xC.