Noncollinear magnetic structure in Ni0.35Fe0.65

Abstract

Magnetic structure of NicFe1−c alloys in the INVAR region has long been a matter of great scientific interest and controversy. Using the locally self-consistent multiple scattering method, which has recently been extended to treat noncollinear magnetic systems, we studied the magnetic structure of Ni0.35Fe0.65 alloys. To simulate the alloys, we constructed a large fcc based sample which contains 256 sites occupied randomly by Ni and Fe atoms. The ground state magnetic structure is found to consist of noncollinear configurations associated with Fe-rich regions. In particular, Fe sites surrounded completely by other Fe atoms have antiferromagnetic alignments, while Fe sites having less than three Ni nearest-neighbors have a variety of noncollinear arrangements.