Evolution of defects and local environment during the magnetostructural phase transformation in thin films
Phys. Rev. Materials 8, 114415 – Published 18 November, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.114415
Abstract
Thin films of short-range-ordered alloys undergo a transition to bcc structure caused by the penetration of energetic ions. The magnetic ordering correlates to the lattice order, where the short-range-ordered alloy is paramagnetic and the bcc structure becomes ferromagnetic. We show that during reordering, a process of point defect agglomeration along with the formation of vacancy clusters occurs. Depending on the thin-film growth conditions, reordering occurs at different rates, thus the structural disorder in the final bcc structure correlates with both the initial monovacancy concentration and the initial degree of short-range order of the as-grown films. Furthermore, we show that the response towards irradiation is highly element-specific, revealing higher structural disorder and an overall lower irradiation response for V as compared to Fe. The fraction of the crystalline, ferromagnetic bcc phase, however, increases at the expense of the short-range ordered paramagnetic phase with increasing ion fluence applied.