Structural and magnetic properties of Fe-Co-C alloys with tetragonal deformation: A first-principles study
W. Marciniak, Mirosław Werwiński
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 the density functional theory approach for ${({\mathrm{Fe}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Co}}_{x})}_{16}\mathrm{C}$ 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 atom occupancies at all stoichiometric concentrations possible in $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2$ supercell based on two-atom tetragonal representation. We rely on the thermodynamic averaging method and large sample count to obtain accurate MAE values. We place the utilized method in the context of 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 around about 50% Co concentration and notably high MAE values for Co content $x$ as low as 25%. In addition, we show the presence of a positive correlation between MAE and mixing enthalpy.