Mastering disorder in a first-order transition by ion irradiation

S. Cervera (1) , M. Lobue , E. Fontana (1, 2) , M. Eddrief (1) , V. Etgens (1) , E. Lamour (1) , S. Macé (1) , M. Marangolo (1) , E. Plouet (1) , C. Prigent (1) , S. Steydli (1) , D. Vernhet (1) , Martino Trassinelli (1, 3)

1 INSP - Institut des Nanosciences de Paris
2 Polito - Politecnico di Torino = Polytechnic of Turin
3 INSP-E10 - Agrégats et surfaces sous excitations intenses

The effect of ion bombardment on MnAs single crystalline thin films is studied. The role of elastic collisions between ions and atoms of the material is singled-out as the main process responsible for modifying the properties of the material. Thermal hysteresis suppression, and the loss of sharpness of the magneto-structural phase transition are studied as a function of different irradiation conditions. While the latter is shown to be associated with the ion induced disorder at the scale of the transition correlation length, the former is related to the coupling between disorder and the large-scale elastic field associated with the phase coexistence pattern.

Keywords: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); FOS: Physical sciences

Domains: Atomic Physics [physics.atom-ph]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]

S. Cervera, M. Lobue, E. Fontana, M. Eddrief, V. Etgens, et al.. Mastering disorder in a first-order transition by ion irradiation. Physical Review Materials, 2024, 8 (2), pp.024406. ⟨10.48550/arXiv.2307.13845⟩. ⟨hal-04297524v3⟩