Enhancement of magnetic properties of Co₂MnSi Heusler alloy prepared by mechanical alloying method

Highlights: • Ferromagnetic Heusler alloys of Co₂MnSi were synthesized at low temperature. • There is an at least 30% reduction in the phase formation temperature. • Saturation magnetization of alloy was increased significantly after annealing. - Abstract: Ferromagnetic Heusler alloys of Co₂MnSi were synthesized by mechanical alloying method at low temperature. The effect of milling time and annealing process on structural and magnetic properties of ferromagnetic alloy samples were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and vibration sample magnetometer methods, respectively. Structural characteristics such as crystallite size, phase percentage, and lattice parameter determined using the Rietveld method. The values of these parameters were obtained 362.9 nm, 5.699 Å and 98.7%, respectively for annealed sample. Magnetization studies show that the Co2MnSi phase is formed at 15 h of milling and is optimized after 20 h of milling. VSM results showed that saturation magnetization (M_s) of milled samples reduces from 112 to 75 (emu/g) with increasing milling time and then increased gradually to 95 emu/g. The effect of post-annealing on the structural and magnetic properties of milled samples was also investigated. The saturation magnetization of annealed sample (120 emu/g) is higher than the optimum milled sample (95 emu/g) due to increasing preferential ordered L2₁ structure.