What is it about?
Palladium is a very attractive material since in the atomic form it has the 4d states completelly full with 10 electrons and when in the crystalline form some these d-electrons overflow the d-states and appear in the 5s-states. Crystalline palladium is paramagnetic and we find that amorphous Pd becomes ferromagnetic due to the presence of structural defects.
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Why is it important?
We show, for the first time, that structural defects in certain materials may lead to the appearance of magnetism in the bulk. Palladium has the peculiarity that the energy of the 5s states is close to the energy of some 4d states. This incites some electrons to transfer from 4d states to 5s states in the bulk. In amorphous we also have structural defects that we found may contribute to the magnetism. These findings may lead to the production of light-weight ferrromagnets, useful in space and aeronautical applications; also, it may contribute to the understanding of magnetism since structural defects seem to contribute to thís phenomenon in some materials.
Perspectives
Since structural defects seem to contribute to ferromagnetism in palladium it seems reasonable to assume that ferromagnetism may be stronger in highly defective palladium and therefore this material may be more useful in applications and to the contribution of the understanding of magnetic materials.
ARIEL A. VALLADARES
Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, UNAM
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Emergence of magnetism in bulk amorphous palladium, July 2019, American Physical Society (APS),
DOI: 10.1103/physrevb.100.024422.
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