Monte Carlo investigation of the correlation between magnetic and chemical ordering in NiFe alloys

The Ni_xFe_1−x alloys close to the stoichiometric Ni₃Fe composition are modeled by means of Monte Carlo simulations. To describe the atomic and magnetic configurations, the Ising and Heisenberg models with nearest-neighbor interactions have been used, respectively. The pairwise interactions have been fitted to the experimentally measured Curie and Kurnakov temperatures, the Fe-Fe magnetic exchange interaction has been considered antiferromagnetic. The mutual influence of the magnetic and chemical ordering is evidenced and a good agreement with the phase diagram is obtained. Our numerical results show that the magnetic order is able to increase the Kurnakov temperature and, reciprocally, the chemical order is responsible for a rise in the Curie temperature. Also, the influence of the applied magnetic field on the chemical order is investigated and an increase of the Kurnakov temperature with the external field is observed.