Detection of sub-lattice magnetism in sigma-phase Fe-V compounds by zero-field NMR

The first successful measurements of a sub-lattice magnetism with 51V NMR techniques in the sigma-phase Fe(100-x)Vx alloys with x = 34.4, 39.9 and 47.9 are reported. Vanadium atoms present on all five crystallographic sites are magnetic. Their magnetic properties are characteristic of a given site, which strongly depend on the composition. The strongest magnetism exhibit sites A and the weakest one sites D. The estimated average magnetic moment per V atom decreases from 0.36 muB for x = 34.4 to 0.20 muB for x = 47.9. The magnetism revealed at V atoms is linearly correlated with the magnetic moment of Fe atoms, which implies that the former is induced by the latter.