Local magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Ni and Pd-Fe

Ferromagnetic nanocrystalline materials, consisting of Ni and Pd-Fe, are in vestigated on an atomic scale by perturbed gamma gamma-angular correlation spectroscopy, complemented by X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Nanocrystalline Ni was produced by pulsed electrodeposition and simultaneously doped with In-111 probe atoms. Besides the local magneti c field known from polycrystalline Ni, a second component is detected, whic h is attributed to a magnetic perturbation due to grain boundaries. During ball-milling of Pd, a Pd0.70Fe0.30 solid solution caused by Fe impurities i s obtained, which is ferromagnetic at room temperature. Annealing between 6 00 K and 1000 K transforms this solid solution into the compound gamma(2)-P d3Fe. (C) 1999 Acta Metallurgica Inc.