Cluster size effects in the magnetic properties of Fe$_p$-Al$_{q=1-p}$ alloys

Abstract

A spin-1/2 Ising model, defined in the body centered cubic lattice, is used to describe some of the thermodynamic properties of Fe$_p$-Al$_q$ alloys, with $p+q=1$. The model assumes, besides the nearest-neighbor exchange coupling, the existence of further next-nearest-neighbor superexchange interactions, where the latter ones depend on the aluminum atoms cluster size. The Ising system so considered is studied by employing Monte Carlo simulations, using a hybrid algorithm consisting of one single-spin Metropolis move together with one single-cluster Wolff algorithm allied, in addition, with single histograms procedures and finite-size scaling techniques. Quite good fits to the experimental results of the ordering critical temperature, as a function of Al concentration in the range $0\le q<0.7$, are obtained and compared to more recent theoretical approaches done on the same alloys.