Magnetic behaviors of Ti50Zr33Ni17 quasicrystals measured by VSM

Quasicrystals made with Ti, Zr and Ni are good candidate materials studying the magnetic properties of aperiodic structure because the role of Ni in stabilization of the quasicrystal phase is important. Various magnetic states in quasicrystals have been reported including diamagnetism, paramagnetism, spin glass, ferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism. We prepared Ti-Zr-Ni quasicrystals by rapid quenching method. The magnetization (M) of Ti 50 Zr 33 Ni 17 quasicrystal was measured as a function of applied magnetic field (H) and a temperature by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). When the magnetic fields of higher than 2000 G were applied, the magnetization values were decreased as increasing temperature. The field-cooling (FC) and zero-field-cooling (ZFC) magnetization of the samples were also measured and showed no significant difference in magnetization behavior. Our combined results demonstrated that the rapidly quenched Ti-Zr-Ni quasicrystals exhibit paramagnetic properties with no hint of a measurable magnetic hysteresis. It is shown that Ti 50 Zr 33 Ni 17 quasicrystals demonstrate paramagnetic characteristic to the maximum applied magnetic field of 10000 Oe. Interestingly, magnetization fluctuation was noticed in the regions of high magnetic field and at low temperature (25-300 K).