Alignments and Orientations of MnSn2 Phase during the Solidification Process of Sn-Mn Alloy under a High Magnetic Field

It has been reported that MnSn2 exhibited unusual magnetic behaviors related to its crystal structure. However, little work has been done to investigate its behavioral responses to a high magnetic field (HMF), which is of potentially fundamental interest. Based on this, binary Sn-Mn alloy was solidified under different HMFs in this work. The results show that the primary MnSn2 crystals appear block-or bar-like shapes in both the longitudinal and transverse sections. In the longitudinal sections, however, the HMFs tend to align the bar-like crystals with the long axes perpendicular to the magnetic field. In the transverse sections, the HMFs have little influence on the alignments of the bar-like crystals but increase their amount. A crystallographic study indicates that < 110 > is the easy magnetization axis of the MnSn2 crystals that orients preferentially parallel to the magnetic field. These results are attributed to the magnetic anisotropy of the MnSn2 crystals.