Mossbauer spectroscopy, crystallographic, magnetic and electronic structure of ZnFe3N and InFe3N

In this work, mechanical alloying is used to obtain the gamma'-Zn0.6Fe3.4N perovskite nitrides. A single-phase gamma'-ZnFe3N was not obtained but indi um substitution leads to a single-phase compound not fully ordered. X-ray d iffraction and Mossbauer measurements were performed on these compounds. We found that InFe3N is paramagnetic while magnetic measurements made at low temperature give 4.65 mu(B) as the magnetic moment per unit formula for zin c substitution. Self-consistent LMTO calculations were performed for gamma' -ZnFe3N and gamma'-InFe3N fully ordered compounds. Ferromagnetic calculatio ns for gamma'-InFe3N give null magnetic moment, that is, paramagnetic is th e stable phase. For gamma'-ZnFe3N, the calculated magnetic moment was 3.60 mu(B), per unit formula. Also, theoretical results, in the zinc case, were compared with Mossbauer results in terms of isomer shift and magnetic hyper fine held. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.