STRUCTURAL AND MAGNETIC STUDIES OF AMORPHOUS AND ICOSAHEDRAL AL65CR10FE10GE15 SYNTHESIZED THROUGH MECHANICAL ALLOYING

The mechanical alloying is used to synthesize the amorphous powder of the nominal composition Al65Cr10Fe10Ge15. On the basis of DTA studies, the compound is heat treated at 530 K. The X-ray diffraction of the h eat treated phase can be indexed to icosahedral indices. The magnetic susceptibility measurement particularly exhibits some interesting feat ures. A qualitative explanation based on the competition between on-si te Coulomb repulsion, which favours local moment formation and the s-d interaction that leads to itinerancy, is attempted which is found to be well correlated with the structural disorder in the system.