Magnetic and structural α-ε phase transition in Fe by X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy (XES) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0276-WXH)

Introduction

Iron, and specifically iron under extreme conditions of high pressure and temperature, is an element of great importance for its geophysical and practical implications. At room temperature and with increasing pressure, iron shows a phase transition from a bcc (a) phase to a hcp (e) phase at a pressure of '130 kbar. This transition is found to take place in a '30-kbar pressure interval. Besides the structural phase transition, one finds also an important change in the magnetic properties of the iron atom: namely iron which is ferromagnetic in the a phase becomes nonmagnetic in the e phase.