Magnetic and structural properties of the magnetic shape memory compound Ni2Mn1.48Sb0.52

Magnetization and high resolution neutron powder diffraction measurements on the magnetic shape memory compound Ni2Mn1.48Sb0.52 have confirmed that it is ferromagnetic below 350 K and undergoes a structural phase transition at T-M approximate to 310 K. The high temperature phase has the cubic L2(1) structure with a = 5.958 angstrom, with the excess manganese atoms occupying the 4(b) Sb sites. In the cubic phase above approximate to 310 K the manganese moments are ferromagnetically aligned. The magnetic moment at the 4(a) site is 1.57(12) mu(B) and it is almost zero (0.15(9) mu(B)) at the 4(b) site. The low temperature orthorhombic phase which is only fully established below 50 K has the space group Pmma with a cell related to the cubic one by a Bain transformation a(orth) = (a(cub) + b(cub))/2; b(orth) = c(cub) and c(orth) = (a(cub) - b(cub)). The change in cell volume is approximate to 2.5%. The spontaneous magnetization of samples cooled in fields less than 0.5 T decreases at temperatures below T-M and at 2 K the magnetic moment per formula unit in fields up to 5.5 T is 2.01(5) mu(B). Neutron diffraction patterns obtained below approximate to 132 K gave evidence for a weak incommensurate magnetic modulation with propagation vector (2/3, 1/3, 0).