ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Magnetic structure of L10 MnAl thin films as a rare earth replacement

Abstract: Developing magnetic materials with high anisotropy and significant magnetisation has a high strategic priority as alternatives to permanent magnets containing rare-earth elements. Additionally, in spintronics, many device concepts require magnetic layers with dynamics that exhibit very low Gilbert damping. Here, we propose to investigate the formation of the L10 phase MnAl thin films. MnAl binary alloys in the L10 phase have highly desirable magnetic properties with a moment comparable to permalloy, high magnetic anisotropy and low spin-orbit coupling and hence low damping. Crucially, they are composed of relatively abundant and inexpensive elements. However, the thermodynamic window for the formation of the L10 phase is quite small and understanding, in detail, how the magnetic properties emerge is critical to developing magnetic MnAl thin films. PNR, with its high sensitivity to magnetic moments, provides an ideal tool with which to probe the formation of ferromagnetic order, allowing new insights into the thermodynamics of this phase formation to be obtained.

Principal Investigator: Professor Thomas Thomson
Experimenter: Dr Alexander Lincoln
Experimenter: Dr Mara Strungaru
Experimenter: Dr Daniel Burrow
Experimenter: Dr Henry De Libero
Experimenter: Ms Noora Naushad
Local Contact: Dr Christy Kinane
Experimenter: Dr Paul Nutter
Experimenter: Dr William Griggs
Experimenter: Dr Andrew Caruana

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610618

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2610618

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Professor Thomas Thomson et al; (2026): Magnetic structure of L10 MnAl thin films as a rare earth replacement, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2610618

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.