Structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Co-C alloys with tetragonal deformation: a first-principle study

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles calculations to analyze the structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Co-C alloys with tetragonal deformation, revealing stable phases, magnetic anisotropy trends, and the effects of chemical disorder.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive density functional theory analysis of Fe-Co-C alloys, including stability, magnetic properties, and disorder effects across all Co concentrations, which was not previously detailed.

Findings

Structural phase transition at 70% Co concentration.

High magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy at 25% Co.

Positive correlation between MAE and mixing enthalpy.

Abstract

Fe-Co alloys with induced tetragonal strain are promising materials for rare-earth-free permanent magnets. However, as ultrathin-film studies have shown, tetragonal Fe-Co structures tend to a rapid relaxation toward a cubic structure as the thickness of the deposited film increases. One of the main methods of inducing the stable strain in the bulk material is interstitial doping with small atoms, like B, C, or N. In this work, we present a full configuration space analysis in density functional theory approach for (Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_{16}$C supercells with a single C impurity in one of the octahedral interstitial positions and for the full range of Co concentrations $x$. We discuss all assumptions and considerations leading to calculated lattice parameters, mixing enthalpies, magnetic moments, and averaged magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies (MAE). We present a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the structural and magnetic properties' dependence on short- and long-range ordering parameters. We analyzed all unique Fe/Co atoms occupancies at all stoichiometric concentrations possible in 2x2x2 supercell based on 2-atom tetragonal representation. We rely on the thermodynamic averaging method and large sample count to obtain accurate MAE values. We reevaluate several chemical disorder approximation methods, including effective medium methods (virtual crystal approximation and coherent potential approximation) and special quasirandom structures method applied to Fe-Co-based alloys. We observe a structural phase transition from the body-centered tetragonal structure above 70% Co concentration and confirm the structural stability of Fe-Co-C alloys in the tetragonal range. We show the presence of a broad MAE maximum of around 50% Co concentration and notably high MAE values for Co content $x$ as low as 25%. In addition, we show a positive correlation between MAE and mixing enthalpy.