Plasticity of Ferromagnets near the Curie Point

Abstract

We propose an explanation of the anomalous growth of plasticity in ferromagnets near the Curie point. We demonstrate that this effect is caused by spin-dependent detachment of dislocations from obstacles under an influence of the internal magnetic field. Magnetization fluctuations grow in the vicinity of the Curie point, yield an increase of the detachment probability and, hence, an increase of the plasticity. We apply this model for a description of the temperature behaviour of the critical stress in nickel and of the microhardness of gadolinium. An external magnetic field suppresses the magnetization fluctuations and, hence may suppress the above singularities.