Thermal expansion anomaly and spontaneous magnetostriction of Gd2Fe17 compound

Materials with negative thermal expansion have many practical applications. However, these materials are known in only several oxide systems, and when the negative thermal expansion occurs, the contraction is usually small and limited to a narrow temperature range beyond room temperature. For obtaining a compound with negative thermal expansion in broad temperature range, the structural and magnetic properties of Gd2Fe17 compound were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction and magnetization measurements. The Gd2Fe17 compound annealed at 1050 oC had a Th2Zn17-type structure. There existed an anisotropic strong spontaneous magnetostriction and a negative thermal expansion in Gd2Fe17 compound. The average thermal expansion coefficients was =-7.40×10-6/K in the temperature range of 294-453 K and =-1.80×10-5/K in 453-534 K, respectively. The spontaneous magnetostrictive deformation ωS decreased from 4.34×10-3 to near zero with temperature increasing from 294 to 572 K. The spontaneous linear deformation λc was much larger than λa at the same temperature below about 500 K.