PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES OF AMORPHOUS AL-GD-TRANSITION METAL-ALLOYS

Amorphous alloys of the composition Al65Gd15Cu20 and Al1Gd1Fe1 have be en prepared by rapid quenching from the melt. The alloys have been stu died by X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis and SQUID magnetization me thods. Thermal analysis results show crystallization temperatures of 6 47 and 945 K for Al-Gd-Cu and Al-Gd-Fe, respectively. For Al-Gd-Cu, ma gnetization measurements show Curie-like behaviour with a localized Gd magnetic moment of 8.0mu(B). Magnetic measurements of Al-Gd-Fe show c onventional ferromagnetic behaviour. The Curie temperature is found to be 275 K and a saturation magnetization of 124 emu/g is measured at 4 .2 K in an applied magnetic field of 1 T.